Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan (August 25th, 2023) Album • Page 19

That KY show is fucking wild

 

If it had Father John Misty on the bill it would basically be perfectly curated to mine and my wife’s overlapping taste.

also shoutout to Matchbox Twenty capitalizing on that Barbie momentum.

 

Give us the full-length feature film.

 

I live in Texas, and it may be different in other places, but I have never seen an artist transcend all demographics (and SO QUICKLY in his career) like ZB does. He is everyone's favorite artist right now. Your grandma. Your 9 year old daughter. Rock fans. Country fans. People who don't even love music. He has tapped into something special and it's really interesting to me.

 

my wife screenshotted a coworker slacking her to ask if her and I like ZB today lol

(and noah kahan lol)

 

fuck this song is so good. im right back in.

 

Nine Ball? Fuck yeah it is

 

The entire EP fucks

 

yeah the EP is as good as the album

 

I just like him digestible.

 

So I don’t like country, at all. Mostly I guess because I didn’t realize actual lyricists like Zach Bryan existed in the genre anymore. Now here I am crying over I Remember Everything.

Quick brag about my cool dad, he is the production manager for Trampled by Turtles who Zach has taken out for a couple runs in the last year. Now I need to beg him to bring me to a show.

 

Seeing a lot of the "I don't like country, but I love this!" posts again lately, thanks to Zach, Kacey releasing a new album, the Beyonce songs, etc. It's making me want to reiterate something I've said a lot of times before, which is that, if you like these songs/artists/albums, there probably is a lot of country music out there you would enjoy!

I made this playlist back at the beginning of COVID, spanning 200 artists I love that I think at least touch the country music galaxy. It covers a lot of different types of country, from mainstream to Americana to roots rock to singer-songwriters similar to Zach (though, Zach isn't on there, because I didn't know about him at the time). Spend some time with it if you're interested in finding other parts of this genre that you enjoy.

 

This is very kind, thank you for sharing! I spent a lot of years very, very entrenched in that part of the music world. I'm not nearly as invested in it as I used to be, in part because I just wanted to spend more time listening to other genres. But I still think there's a lot of special music being made in that space, and I hope this era doesn't just become known for Zach Bryan and nothing else.

 

I constantly have to tell people that they don’t like “Pop Country” when they lay blanket criticism on the genre. Luckily, some good country is starting to become popular.

 

Yes, this is a good take, you convinced me the last time you posted something similar. I would add some southern rock to that list as that crosses over to "country" in my mind - Whiskey Myers, Blackberry Smoke, etc.

 

I don't even like that blanket statement, because I think there's a lot of charm to a good pop-country song or a good pop-country album. For me, it really comes down to good songwriting and bad songwriting. Most of the country stuff that gets played on the radio is just derivative of a derivative of a derivative. It's every cliche in the book, usually sung (badly) by a white guy named Luke or Bryan or Luke Bryan. But even some of those punching bag mainstream artists have a song or two (often contributed by an outside writer) that just kicks ass. Country is a really odd genre, in that way.

For sure! I never got super into Blackberry Smoke, but Whiskey Myers is good. There are a few more southern rock leaning bands on this list, too.

 

I know you're trying to avoid labels, but I think of that derivative stuff you're referring to as, basically, what used to be called "pop" music. It's twangy Britney Spears, or whoever, and I never listened to that kind of pop on the radio either. Ultra derivative, written by others as you said, and I have zero interest. But the country stuff I really like? I like it arguably more than current rock music.

 

Some more southern rock leaning bands I like that are at least country-adjacent -

Tanner Usrey, Kolton Moore & The Clever Few, Treaty Oak Revival, Them Dirty Roses, Southall, The Steel Woods, of course Drive By Truckers but they've been around forever.

 

I think a better word if formulaic. It brings down every genre to "outsiders".

 

The thing with a lot of the country artists that are easier sells for non-country fans (Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, etc.) is that those artists probably would have been slotted into the rock format as recently as the late '90s or early 2000s. And, in the other direction, big '90s bands like Counting Crows or The Wallflowers would 100 percent have gotten put in the country bucket if they were coming up today.

 

Hootie and The Blowfish, many others too

 

finally getting around to checking this out it’s been on my radar for a minute but life ya know? anyway it’s great

 

If you haven’t checked out the Boys of Faith EP, definitely get to that one too.