'Dry Deserts' by Zach Bryan – Lyrics & Meaning

Throughout his career, Zach Bryan has never been afraid to test out new creative ideas in front of an audience.

Whether he's sharing snippets, teasers or unfinished ideas through social media, or giving songs their first play live during massive stadium shows, Bryan shares his workings out throughout the development of the songs, giving us an insight into his creative thinking leading into a new project when these songs arrive seemingly fully fleshed out.

In 2025, that very project was the sprawling, 25-track behemoth, With Heaven On Top.

Bryan's sixth-studio album finally emerged on January 9, 2026, after being announced way back in July 2025. As expected, Bryan teased and road-tested many of the songs even before that. A select few of the songs first emerged in fragmented form back in October and November of 2024, while other offerings were first tried out live in front of tens of thousands of people in Dublin and London in June 2025.

‘Dry Deserts’ - one of the rare tracks that has lived a double, even triple life, was first whispered to fans in fleeting snippets before being fully road-tested under Irish lights, long before it ever reached its final iteration.

Originally labelled 'In Dreams' in a snippet recorded on social media, Bryan first shared a rough version of the song back in April 2025, playing it on an acoustic guitar around a BBQ as rising country star Joshua Slone accompanied him on harmonies.

Two weeks later, Bryan shared another uncut video of himself performing the song, this time alone on an electric guitar. Much like the original version, the lyrics had seemingly found their full form, at least for the short snippets we were hearing. It was here the song took on the joint label of 'Napalm Skies' / 'In Dreams'.

In June 2025, the song would be unveiled in full during one of Bryan's huge shows at Phoenix Park in Dublin, Ireland, where he also debuted another new track from the album, 'Plastic Cigarette'. Not only was this the first time the song was heard in full, but it was also the first time the song had been played with his full band in tow.

On January 9th, upon release, it was confirmed that the song's title was actually 'Dry Deserts', and that the full-band sound of the live version heard in Dublin was a fitting exhibition of how the song would ultimately sound on record come release.

Emerging in a mucky yet melodic haze of raw, chicken-scratch electric guitars and bounding bass high in the mix, the song verges into a punchy anthem for the yearning and the lost, the crash of percussion and bright fuzz of picked electrics only disturbed by the squawk of pinched brass and a solo so conflicted by its languid pace it fights with the chords around it for focus.

Rugged, pitchy and rasping, it's an unpolished gem that embodies its desires both sonically and lyrically.

Bryan veers between fleeting memories and tangible dreams - unsure what is true and what is fiction - seemingly in a state of paralysis that's only pacified by his comforting reverie.

"Driving out to California, the night I met you in this bed of mine
The wind blowing through all those palm trees, shaking bodies, under napalm skies"

Bryan recounts what is seemingly the first time he dreams of the one he yearns after. The sudden, uncompromising change in narrative from "Driving out to California" to "the night I met you in the bed of mine" in the same sentence evokes the feeling of drifting between being awake and asleep, cementing the confusion of what is real and imagination.

The illustration of 'Napalm Skies' is frequently used to depict an image of great beauty and terror, the twilight on a beautiful day closing in a vivid, unimaginable concoction of deep, vengeful reds and hypnotic oranges.

"The kids and all their fucked up virtues, I know it hurts you, when the party dies"

The line is evocative of the narrative in Bryan's 2024 smash hit, 'Pink Skies', where Bryan observes a younger generation, and is reminded of how someone lost or far away would feel about the state of society in the world and how, in turn, that impacts his own perspective. It feels like a consideration of the passing of time, particularly as he mentions later in the song the way in which he's "coping with passing timе".

“Would you cross dry deserts, babe?
Would you cut through pines?
Would you swim upriver when I'm surely on your mind?”

The chorus feels like a question to both the person he is thinking of and to himself: he's desperate to know whether they would go through hell and high water to reach him in his time of need? It feels like a challenge for his own insecurities as much as for the one he desires, at a time when his need for comfort and support is at a tipping point.

“And you're always calming me
Only in these dreams
Waking up the neighbors, screaming in these sweaty sheets”

It's here we receive some clarity. Again, the sudden juxtaposition between the calm of dreams and the nightmare of reality is thrust into actuality with three single lines, as Bryan realises once again it's all been a fantasy, and he remains, seemingly alone, in a state of fear and hurt.

“And I've been on the run for so long, I want a sad song that lasts all night
The whites and blues on big, wide opens, the way I'm coping with passing timе”

When awake, Bryan suggests the world is a blur - constantly moving, unable to focus, a vast expanse filled with lights and colours that he's unable to make sense of. He wants something to settle him, the melancholy of a sad song giving him the sort of stabilising feeling he's struggling to find.

“Driving out to California, the night I met you in this bed of mine
The wind blowing through all those palm trees, shaking bodies, under napalm skies
The kids and all their fucked up virtues, I know it hurts you, when the party dies

Would you cross dry deserts, babe?
Would you cut through pines?
Would you swim upriver when I'm surely on your mind?
And you're always calming me
Only in these dreams
Waking up the neighbors, screaming in these sweaty sheets

And I've been on the run for so long, I want a sad song that lasts all night
The whites and blues on big, wide opens, the way I'm coping with passing timе

Would you cross dry deserts, babe?
Would you cut through pinеs?
Would you swim upriver when I'm surely on your mind?
And you're always calming me
Only in these dreams
Waking up the neighbors, screaming in these sweaty sheets

Would you cross dry deserts, babe?
Would you cut through pines?
Would you swim upriver when I'm surely on your mind?
And you're always calming me
Only in these dreams
Waking up the neighbors, screaming in these sweaty sheets”

--

For more on Zach Bryan, see below: