'Bathwater' by Zach Bryan - Lyrics & Meaning

After weeks of longing for The Great American Bar Scene, after days spent wondering which teased tunes and tour offerings would grace its track list, Zach Bryan's new album is finally here.

Across 19 tracks, listeners become acquainted with old favorites, soon-to-be classics and songs that will stick with you forever. ‘Bathwater’ is among them. The closing tune, like a goodbye from a good friend, is bittersweet and beautiful, a wonderfully disheveled ending to the collection of intoxicating tunes.

‘Bathwater’ is a jumble of stumbling strings, soused harmonies and sloshed time signatures, a glorious disorder of ruminative folk that tells a story without words.

While the tune lacks melodic finesse, dragging its feet one moment then tripping over them the next, the musical disarray mirrors the melancholic lyrics about drunken self-discovery through this pie-eyed existence.

"Coffee cold this morning
You're getting rid of me
Got drunk, fell asleep, and woke up in Eastern Tennessee
Woke up on the wrong side of a
Lifelong fight between
Who I was, who I am, and which one's right"

In the minute or so it takes ‘Bathwater’ to play out, listeners are greeted by a string of earnest words and those all-too familiar feelings associated with life's changes and personal growth.

That's something Bryan confronts throughout this tune: becoming. He sings about being caught in a "lifelong fight between / Who I was, who I am, and which one's right." Change – for better or worse – is inevitable, all of us becoming different people throughout our lives. We're sometimes susceptible to growing pains in the process, and this song examines those internal struggles.

"Baby's out with the bathwater
He ain't got no chance
Oklahoma knows the old ya
So boy, get up and dance
These songs used to free me
Now there's nothing free in this
Just 808 beats, what we used to be, and back-door politics"

Here, Bryan uses the age-old idiom, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater," meaning don't lose what's important in attempt to rid yourself of the unwanted bits.

Perhaps this is in reference to the meteoric rise to fame he's experienced over the last couple of years and the disillusionment that's come with it. He seems to struggle with his music now that his songs have become "just 808 beats, what we used to be, and back-door politics." Shadows seem to have been cast over the things that used to bring him joy.

"Now everyone knows an outlaw
Country to their core
But the only outlaw I've known
Served in the Corps
And I ain't heard 'Shake the Frost' in a
Couple years or more"

The artist seems to look to the outlaws – figures who became synonymous with authenticity, especially within the world of country music – but he's struggling to pinpoint even them as he seeks something real, something tangible in the midst of this personal turmoil.

He name drops the Tyler Childers classic 'Shake the Frost', perhaps noting that song as the last whisper of something meaningful to him.

Bryan hasn't offered up any specific words about 'Bathwater'; however, when sharing the preface to The Great American Bar Scene ahead of its official release, the artist delved into how the record came to be.

He writes: “The making of this album tested me and everyone close to me. It drove me to my ends and my beginnings. I saw the lights of Paris after saying I would for ten years, rode the coast of Australia with a beautiful woman, was locked in a pub until 7am in Ireland, walked my favorite street in New York over a hundred times, thought I was going to bleed out in a field in Tennessee, spent a few hours in handcuffs, hugged my grandma more than a few times, layed in the grass of my mother's hometown, sang ‘State Trooper’ in a bar South of Boston and wrote something that I think was important. I wrote and produced all of these with the help of some truly great friends. I finally felt like I's making music again. If you don't like it I assume it's not intended for you. Grab your beers through tears and fears, ‘the Great American Bar Scene’”.

Coffee cold this morning
You're getting rid of me
Got drunk, fell asleep, and woke up in Eastern Tennessee
Woke up on the wrong side of a
Lifelong fight between
Who I was, who I am, and which one's right

Baby's out with the bathwater
He ain't got no chance
Oklahoma knows the old ya
So boy, get up and dance
These songs used to free me
Now there's nothing free in this
Just 808 beats, what we used to be, and back-door politics

Now everyone knows an outlaw
Country to their core
But the only outlaw I've known
Served in the Corps
And I ain't heard 'Shake the Frost' in a
Couple years or more

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For more on Zach Bryan, see below: