‘Boons’ by Zach Bryan - Lyrics & Meaning

First teased back in October 2023 with a brief snippet shared to X (formerly Twitter), Zach Bryan's atmospheric, wintery offering, ‘Boons’, finally arrived on July 4th, 2024 as part of his widely celebrated fifth album, The Great American Bar Scene.

Revolving around his love for being out in the sticks - or rather, ‘the boondocks’ - ‘Boons’ finds Zach Bryan spotlighting the simple pleasures of a life spent away from the city. It captures the quiet contentment Zach displays throughout The Great American Bar Scene, such as on other stand-outs, ‘Better Days’ and ‘Lucky Enough’.

‘Boons’ continues in the glacial, folk-leaning vein of Zach Bryan's lauded 2023 Boys of Faith EP, with the way he draws out the lyric, ‘Real deep’, accompanied by the ghostly chorus of hums in the backdrop accentuating the ethereal ambience of the track.

With the help of the clipped, undulating acoustic guitar and Zach Bryan's drawn-in delivery, ‘Boons’ makes you feel as though you're taking an afternoon stroll through the forest in November - with the cold, sparse sonics somehow intensifying the warm, cosy and fuzzy feeling that courses throughout the intricate offering.

“Let me die out in the boons
It took me thirteen years to bloom
They broke up, but he's alright
We'll be in town 'til late tonight
I'm dyin' in the boons”

Zach Bryan begins the track by affirming his keenness to live his life “out in the boons”, i.e. the boondocks, a slang term for the isolated countryside well out of earshot from the city.

He confesses it took him “thirteen years” to grow up and mature, and it's not 100% clear what Zach is taking as the starting point of his journey towards ‘blooming’, as he phrases it. He references a break-up, potentially that between him and his ex-wife, Rose, or maybe even Deb Peifer, Zach's girlfriend prior to Brianna LaPaglia.

Even though there was this relationship breakdown, Zach sings that “he's alright”, before repeating his mission of spending his life in the sticks, but framing it in the present tense, crooning, “I'm dyin’ in the boons”. The phrasing feels pointed, and it seems as though he's flipping the classic desire to move to the big city due to feeling stifled by an upbringing in rural towns. Instead of issuing the line “I'm gonna die out in the boons” as a lament, he delivers this as a passionate hope of his.

“And I hate a hungry crowd
Worst of 'em all talk the loudest
I guess I'll die out here
With a hammer and a beer
Just dyin' in the boons”

Zach Bryan offers some context as to why he prefers life in the boondocks here, by underlining his frustrations with the noisy, bustling crowds he finds in the city. As a result, he'll happily live a blue-collar life in the sticks with only “a hammer and a beer” beside him, with Zach Bryan painting a picture of him working in manual labour and relishing the chance to drink a cold one at the end of a long shift.

The title ‘boons’ is usually assigned with negative connotations, with the name often carrying connotations of being ‘behind the times’ and less progressive than their city-based counterparts. Zach plays on this with his reference to a hammer and a beer - the latter of which is famously a ‘working man’s’ drink - as he leans into the tropes and stereotypical lifestyle that certain city-folk often look down upon.

“So leave me out of that talk downtown
I have found everything I'll ever need
Real deep
In the boons”

In the chorus, Zach Bryan restates how he's happy with the life he's building away from the downtown lights, reiterating he has “everything I'll ever need”. The phrasing of “Real deep / In the boons” carries similarities to ‘Better Days’, another cut from The Great American Bar Scene, in which Zach muses, “I’m in deep on better days”.

“I met a girl deep in the city
She said she don't mind sittin' with me
I let my troubles float away
I had myself a simple day
Just dyin' in the boons”

In the second half of ‘Boons’, Zach expands his peaceful, simple life to include falling in love, with the protagonist meeting a woman that makes all his worries and anxieties “float away”.

“And how I miss the Quick Stop line
They say hello every time
No concern for politics
Come on home, I'll check for ticks
Love me gently in the boons”

However, the only issue is Zach met the woman ‘downtown’, and it's not long before he yearns for a return to his beloved boons. He croons about how he misses “the Quick Stop line”, which seems to be a reference to some kind of bus or train route in the countryside where the people are always friendly and “say hello every time”. A quick-stop line is also a fishing term, so this could be interpreted as a nod to this pastime, which is typically associated with those living in the countryside.

Zach Bryan doubles-down on his previously stated aversion to politics in the subsequent lines, before inviting his new lover to come to the boons with him. Zach jests, “I'll check for ticks”, and although this tongue-in-cheek line is open to interpretation, it could be seen as Zach poking fun at the suggestion country-folk are less civilised than those in the city. He concludes this verse by warmly and tenderly asking nothing more from his partner than to “Love me gently in the boons”.

“And why does everyone I know
Have somewhere else to go?
Won't you look up from your hands?
Let's be still while we still can
Stay a while out in the boons”

Zach Bryan extends his criticism of the hurried life associated with the city by expressing his frustrations at how everyone seems to be in a rush to get somewhere, and therefore struggle to be truly present. He encourages people to “look up from your hands” and stop being engrossed in phones and social media, before toasting the stillness that can be found in the bucolic equanimity of the countryside.

“Let me die out in the boons
It took me thirteen years to bloom
I'm beat up, but I'm alright
I'll be in town 'til late tonight
Just dyin' in the boons”

Zach Bryan ends ‘Boons’ by offering up a variation on the first verse, swapping out the lyric “They broke up” in favour of “I'm beat up”, perhaps referencing the physical demands of the blue-collar job he mentions earlier in the song. Nonetheless, he defiantly holds fast to his drive to keep living - and to one day die - “in the boons”.

The Oklahoma singer-songwriter is yet to touch on ‘Boons’ specifically, Zach Bryan delved into the creative process behind The Great American Bar Scene as a whole on the album's preface, which he shared across socials a few days prior to its release.

The ‘Dawns’ hitmaker explained, “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’”.

“Let me die out in the boons
It took me thirteen years to bloom
They broke up, but he's alright
We'll be in town 'til late tonight
I'm dyin' in the boons

And I hate a hungry crowd
Worst of 'em all talk the loudest
I guess I'll die out here
With a hammer and a beer
Just dyin' in the boons

So leave me out of that talk downtown
I have found everything I'll ever need
Real deep
In the boons

I met a girl deep in the city
She said she don't mind sittin' with me
I let my troubles float away
I had myself a simple day
Just dyin' in the boons

And how I miss the Quick Stop line
They say hello every time
No concern for politics
Come on home, I'll check for ticks
Love me gently in the boons

And why does everyone I know
Have somewhere else to go?
Won't you look up from your hands?
Let's be still while we still can
Stay a while out in the boons

So leave me out of that talk downtown
I have found everything I'll ever need
Real deep
In the boons

Let me die out in the boons
It took me thirteen years to bloom
I'm beat up, but I'm alright
I'll be in town 'til late tonight
Just dyin' in the boons”

For more on Zach Bryan, see below: