Last winter, while doing incredibly long amounts of driving, I found myself “discovering” Zach Bryan. Bryan had a sizable hit with “Something in the Orange”.
Bryan’s third album “American Heartbreak” was a large 34 track two hour-plus record with six singles and all seemed to be playing on the radio with “…Orange” and “From Austin” getting the most play. And they were everywhere- mainstream country, Americana, pop, rock- probably everywhere but the Reggae, Hip Hop and Classical music channels.
I was struck by Bryan who I found incredibly talented. Like the other big star of 2022, Harry Styles, I found some songs really resonated with me, while other were complete misses.
Obviously, I was hoping for big things in Bryan’s future. I was really struck by what I felt were similarities to the early radio hits of Steve Earle.
I say this as I feel like those singles really teeter on being pure country and whatever term you want to give Alt Country.
I am not saying that he’s the first person on country radio that sounds like he should be on an Americana station or vice versa. I can think of more than a few examples- Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton and so on.
But listening to Bryan really put him on the line of wondering where he would go next.
Where he went next was becoming one of the biggest stars on the planet. It hasn’t been without some diversion- a public dispute with Ticketmaster, an arrest for obstructing, an appearance on Yellowstone, a much publicized Red Rocks appearance, Grammy nominations and sales, sales, sales- concerts and charts.
It led to the media claiming that his new self titled album is the “Nevermind” moment for Alt Country.
That is the kind of hyperbole that the media loves but if sort of feels on point.
For starters, the idea that grunge killed glam metal isn’t completely an accurate cause and effect. Styles always change. We would still be wearing mop tops or skinny ties. Every fashion and trend evolves.
So there’s a conventional wisdom in saying the trend of so called BroCountry that has dominated country music radio for the last decade or more (indeed dominated radio) with artists like Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan (no relation) that grew from a generational mix of Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney but also adding those Hip Hop and Southern Rock influences. Songs about partying and weekends and good times.
It isn’t surprising that the parallels to glam metal and grunge are there. It isn’t all that shocking that a movement for more heart felt music with meaningful lyrics would pop up as the next trend.
It is also a bit silly, right. Party rock never completely goes away and introspective songs never did not exist either.
So yes, absolutely- I see the parallels and yes, please slap me when I take this so seriously. I do think there are contributing factors.
I think the river of alt country and Americana and Adult Alternative music that flows probably from the first time someone picked up an instrument has got us here and I think that you can kind of see the fork (or forks) that came out of DriveBy Truckers 2004s The Dirty South and Jason Isbell’s 2013 Southeastern
It’s not so much I see similarities between Bryan and Isbell, but I see a host of singers in the last 10 to 20 years that saw a path for their music and do remind me of Bryan in style- the aforementioned Simpson, Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers and Colter Wall among others
There also has been a movement of (mostly) Oklahoman musicians called “Red Dirt Country Music” that combines a lot of older country influences like Western swing, outlaw country, pre WW2 folk and combines with more modern influences like Classic Rock and Cowpunk.
Bryan, also an Oklahoman gets looped up with the Red Dirt guys. That movement’s biggest ebb might have been the late 00s but with bands like Turnpike Troubadours and Cross Canadian Ragweed gaining huge cult following, it was only a matter of time before someone, if not Bryan, from that generation would go mainstream.
There’s a couple of other trends. Country music has been dominated of late by Morgan Wallen and whatever you’re feelings on the artist, he has stylistic similarities with Bryan (as do also recent successes like Kacey Musgraves, Stapleton and Cody Johnson).
There was also the top rated television series Yellowstone which had a strong alt country connection. Not only were singers Ryan Bingham and Lainey Wilson part of the cast (and cast stars Kevin Costner and Luke Grimes have both recorded alt country tinged albums), but the soundtrack was filled with alt country names- Childers, Wall, Shane Smith and the Saints, Whiskey Myers , Stapleton, Whitey Myers and the 78s, Isbell, Simpson, Jinks, Hayes Carll, and of course, Bryan (who appeared in an episode as well)
The self titled 2023 album ended up being the album I hoped for. If you need proof of intent, it’s there with the A List Americana guest stars- Musgraves, The Lumineers, the War and Treaty and Sierra Ferrell. If you were on the fence about Bryan, I think this will sway you. It certainly swayed me and internet action is generally positive.
Commercially, he’s a lot more popular than most of my current listening. There might not be a more successful country artist these days that’s not named Wallen or Swift. And if he’s not for you, I get that too.
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