'Santa Fe' by Zach Bryan – Lyrics & Meaning

One thing about Zach Bryan – he's always going to use one of his songs to shout out a U.S. city. With the arrival of his sixth studio album, With Heaven On Top, which dropped on Friday (Jan. 9), it seems Santa Fe, New Mexico marks the newest destination of his fixations.

The seventh track on the project, 'Santa Fe' is about new beginnings won the hard way, the high desert city acting as a symbol of freedom and mistakes, reckless abandon and unflinching bravery, in the face of all of life's disappointments.

'Santa Fe' erupts. What begins with stark vocals that pierce the void, the song soon explodes with fearsome strums, blinding horns and a rampaging beat. From there, 'Santa Fe' takes on the life of bright, country-folk ode to freedom, opportunity and the long road to becoming exactly who you were meant to be.

"Call up your mother, tell her that you're all alone
With some sky out by Santa Fe, New Mеxico
Hoping, broken, you can find yourself back home
Homе is broken, drunk and dirty on a desert road"

'Santa Fe' seems to contain a conflicting narrative, a song about new beginnings but also about the growing pains that come with them. The New Mexico city appears to act as a symbol of freedom and mistakes, a vehicle upon which one can discover who and where they were meant to be.

"Well, I've been to Santa Fe before, drank a million beers at the Matador
Sleep in your jeans in the back of your camper 'cause that's all you got to your name
Think I'm going to Santa Fe, the type of place you'll know my name
Never talk to no one again and never sing another song"

Here, to Bryan, Santa Fe is a place where no one and everyone knows your name, a place you can escape to but also be found in.

He sings of his experiences in this place – some are good, some are less than so. Either way, he paints a landscape of extremes, of drunken nights, of moments of extreme clarity. Here, Santa Fe seem to be the destination for life's layovers, where things can be both discovered and forgotten in the same fleeting moment, a place you will pass through and always come out on the other side a different person.

"Think I'm going to Santa Fe, the type of place you'll know my name
Pissed me off and pissed on all the friends I ever made"

Call up your mother, tell her that you're all alone
With some sky out by Santa Fe, New Mexico

Think I'm going to Santa Fe, the type of place you'll know my name
My grandma called just yesterday to say she loves the manor I was raised
Grown so weary of all of this and every day is a precipice
It pissed me off and pissed on all the friends I ever made

Call up your mother, tell her that you're all alone
With some sky out by Santa Fe, New Mеxico
Hoping, broken, you can find yourself back home
Homе is broken, drunk and dirty on a desert road

Well, I've been to Santa Fe before, drank a million beers at the Matador
Sleep in your jeans in the back of your camper 'cause that's all you got to your name
Think I'm going to Santa Fe, the type of place you'll know my name
Never talk to no one again and never sing another song

Call up your mother, tell her that you're all alone
With some sky out by Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hoping, broken, you can find yourself back home
Home is hopeless, drunk and dirty on a desert road
Call up your mother, tell her that you're all alone
With some sky out by Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hoping, broken, you can find yourself back home
Home is hopeless, drunk and dirty on a desert road

Think I'm going to Santa Fe, the type of place you'll know my name
Pissed me off and pissed on all the friends I ever made

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For more on Zach Bryan, see below:

Zach Bryan

Artist