Zach Bryan

Since being honourably discharged from the US Navy in 2021, Zach Bryan’s journey to country’s upper echelons has been as quick as it has been unconventional. Bryan has eschewed Music City’s preferred producers and writers, in favour of crafting a sparse, unpolished sound that elevates magical storytelling above all else.

In 2019, just like any other day after a shift, Bryan and his Navy buddies sat down for a jam session. Only this time, they decided to record Bryan playing ‘Heading South’ and upload it to his socials, thinking nothing of it.

The video quickly went viral, and paved the way for Bryan to sign a recording contract with Warner Records two years later in 2021. The candid, lo-fi video would go on to set the tone for Bryan’s rustic, bare-bones aesthetic.

Following the release of his first two albums, DeAnn and Elisabeth, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, Bryan released his 34-track magnum opus, American Heartbreak in 2022. It debuted at No. 5 on the US Billboard 200, and set a new 2022 record for the most single-day streams for a country album on Apple Music and Spotify.

‘Something in the Orange’ was the fourth single from American Heartbreak, and the hauntingly ominous track became one of the defining country songs of the year. It marked Bryan’s first entry onto the Billboard Hot 100, as well as propelling him to the pinnacle of the Billboard Top Songwriters chart later in 2022.

In the summer of 2022, Zach Bryan continued this momentum by putting out his pensive Summertime Blues EP, a project that would again veer away from the well-worn path of typical summer country releases. He continues to build a reputation for his unrivalled rate of releases, which has been magnified by a string of singles towards the end of 2022, including, ‘Burn, Burn, Burn’, ‘Starved’, ‘Fifth of May’ and ‘The Greatest Day of My Life’. Following a blockbuster 2022 tour, which involved a captivating, snow-hampered show at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Colorado, Bryan has already been confirmed for a slew of 2023 festivals.