'Zach Bryan' and the Resurgence of Country Music

For country fans, 2023 is proving to be a career year, as the genre has ruled the main commercial Billboard charts with a demanding, conquering presence. Morgan Wallen had just finished his comfortable 16-week reign at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, only to be overthrown by the unknown (emphasis on “unknown”) Oliver Anthony, who became the first artist to debut at Number 1 without any prior Billboard experience.

Literally this was Billboard, when they updated their charts last week and saw some Amish dude singing in the woods at #1:

As I’m writing this, the top 3 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 are occupied by three country songs: Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car,” and Wallen’s “Last Night.” This has happened only once in the entire history of the chart. When was the last time, you ask? Two weeks ago, when Jason Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” traded placed with Anthony’s single.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: "But JD, you don't listen to country music! What do you know?" And to answer your question: nothing. I am a self-proclaimed country casual. However, I'm not ignorant, as I do know country music from a (very) distant view, and I -- along with millions across the nation -- could argue that the best country musician today hasn't even been mentioned in this review yet.

Yes, Zach Bryan has spent the last few years releasing an authentic brand of country that has cemented him a devoted fanbase, and with his newly released eponymous album, he might’ve just propelled himself atop the country conversation at the perfect moment in time.

After eight years of service in the U.S. Navy, Bryan called it a day (which is my civilian way of dumbing down the phrase “was honorably discharged”) to pursue his music career in 2021, and he hasn’t slowed down since. Millions of people – myself included – were first introduced to Bryan with his 2022 powerhouse hit “Something in the Orange,” a track that we may look back at in retrospect and crown as the best country song of the decade. Even before then, though, you could dig through his YouTube and TikTok pages and see that six years ago, he was merely a kid serving in the military, with a lot of talent and a fire present in his music that still flutters today.

That’s what makes people gravitate so strongly to Bryan and his music: that authenticity. Many arrows point in different directions to what causes this resurgence in country music, but the authenticity – in sound, lyricism, instrumentation, energy – that connects with listeners is something that generic pop hits have watered down and thrown out long ago. Consumers have developed a sense of what they value in entertainment, and that’s that the artists they’re giving their attention to can show a sense of humanity and give them a peak behind the curtain.

For Bryan, his music is its own peak behind the curtain.

We all know his raw vocals and ingenious lyrics are a match made in songwriting heaven, but his intention goes beyond that. The DNA of his music requires minimal production and mastering in his songs, as a way to avoid smothering that true, untouched allure that his music glides through. In fact, his songs are purposefully produced to sound like he’s singing from a campfire circle (we’ll circle back to this [no pun intended]) to strengthen that connection to his listeners. Everyone has had that one friend with a guitar that sang their heart out at a high school party, with mounds of talent and passion. Zach Bryan is that friend.

Which brings us to his 2023 release, Zach Bryan, fully produced by the singer himself. Track-by-track, you find an artist that not only knows his style of music, but knows who he is as a musician. There’s no genre experimentation, yet there’s diversity found that manages not to disrupt the album. He’s already thrown darts on a wall to see what sticks when he released his – dear God – 34-track album American Heartbreak last year, and now we get the concise, focused follow-up that allows us to enjoy our meal instead of chewing for two hours straight (not bashing American Heartbreak, but we know what I think about 30+ track albums).

Our first true track from Zach Bryan starts with “Overtime.” Immediately, we’re placing our hands over our hearts with a Star-Spangled guitar riff, followed by audio from a TikTok of a NASCAR fan raising hell and praising Dale. If that doesn’t make you want to punch a Communist, then you’re a Communist. We then get the first of many fully stripped songs, "Summertime's Close." Bryan’s vocals are accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, yet they seem minuscule in comparison to the crushing, brutal lyrics.

That heartbreaking writing continues into “East Side of Sorrow”, and suddenly you see the pattern. These aren’t songs bought from a songwriter and strummed together in a few minutes in a studio. These are lyrics penned by the vocalist, who relives the emotion of those experiences when the words meet the paper and his voice belts them out. That alone carries a tremendous intensity that Bryan executes to utter perfection.

The song version of “Fear & Friday’s” brings a captivating energy we hadn’t felt in the album yet, and I love me some energetic tunes, so this one is up my alley. We then retreat back into immense passion (“Ticking” & “Holy Roller”) and complete annihilation of the soul (“Jake’s Piano – Long Island”), and never turn from that for the rest of the album. We are met with solid features from Kacey Musgraves and The Lumineers -- which will lead those respective songs to sweep up the most streams of the 16 on Zach Bryan -- but this is an album that would’ve been just as powerful as a true solo effort. In fact, "Smaller Acts" may be the most unaltered and unaccompanied (minus the feature from that loud ass frog) I’ve ever heard. Almost certainly recorded on an Oklahoman dock over a pond, you can almost feel the summer humidity steaming around you from the pure, infatuated lyrics.

If you’re a country music fan, there’s a lot to be excited about over the path that the genre has carved and is taking, but let’s remove that barrier and take a look in broader terms. If you’re simply a music fan, undefined and unbounded by artists or styles, the trajectory of Zach Bryan’s career can only inspire you for what the next few years have for him and for what the next few decades have on music, as a whole.

Top 3: Fear and Friday’s, Summertime's Close, Smaller Acts

Rating: 8.0 random country artists topping the Billboard charts / 10