Zach Bryan and How I Fell Back in Love with Country Music
During my second year of university, I loved to go on walks. There was a trail near my dorm that I would walk around any chance I could get. I would grab my headphones find a playlist and just walk around taking in the beauty of campus. It was a peaceful time I would count on each day. Whenever things began to get too much or I just needed some time to myself you would find me out there. It was also a perfect time to find some new music.
On one of these walks, I was listening to a random playlist that I now don’t remember the name of. It was mostly filled with indie folk songs since that was what I mostly listened to then. Most of these songs were songs I heard before. Female voices drifted me through the wind. I would go through each song like a lullaby to keep me awake. Then the next song played and it was something different from the rest. It started with a beat of a drum, followed by the plucking of a guitar. I was mesmerized by the slowness of the music that I slowed down my paced. Soon following the instrumental was a deep southern voice. Confused by what I was hearing I looked down at my phone. I recognized one name, Kacy Musgraves, but the other was a man named Zach Bryan. All I could wonder was “Who the f*ck was that”.
In the following weeks, possibly months the song “I Remember Everything” became an important part of my rotation. 16-year-old me would never believe that I would ever listen to a slow, depressing country song, but if you saw in my last blog post things change. I think one thing that this song did was take me back to when I was young (I know this makes me sound old but I’m only 20). It reminded me of the songs I used to listen to with my cousins whenever they would visit. It brought a bittersweet feeling of nostalgia for the past mixed with happiness for finding it again. It’s like how old Taylor Swift songs make me miss the past as I remember sitting in my room hearing “Fifteen” play on my Pandora radio.
You would think after listening to this song on repeat I would search for more Zach Bryan songs. The thing is that I didn’t. I wanted to hold on to this song and let nothing ruin it for me. I thought his other songs wouldn’t give me the same feelings as this one. So I didn’t listen to anything but this for as long as I could.
The next Bryan song I listened to I discovered the same way as the first. I found a playlist called “Happy Spring Vibes” to listen to while I prepared for exams and packed my room since I would be moving back home soon. This song started the same way as “I Remember Everything”. It was slow but it had a mellow humming from the vocalist to accompany the instrumental. As soon as I heard the first lyric I knew it was Zach again featuring another artist I was familiar with, Maggie Rogers. The song “Dawns” was similar but different from the last song. It was still about love and heartbreak but this one was more angry. It had a louder energy to it that I loved. Like the last song this song also became a heavy part of my rotation for the next couple of months.
A couple of months passed since first listening to “Dawns” when I finally decided to listen to more Zach Bryan songs. I wasn’t worried anymore if I would hate them since it was proven that it wasn’t a hoax. He made good music, good country music. So two weeks ago I went on Spotify and saw that he just happened to release a whole album “The Great American Bar Scene”. When listening to most albums I have to be doing something else and have the music as some sort of background music. So I sat down with my earbuds and laptop and drifted off to a peaceful breeze and let the music take my soul on a car ride through the backroads of my hometown.
Since then the album and many of its songs have been on repeat. One of my favorites “28” has been on repeat for days and according to my Airbuds it was my most streamed song of last week. I don’t know what it is about that song but it brings a warm feeling to my heart and a sense of nostalgia for a life I never lived. That is what it is like with most Zach Bryan songs I listen to. Reminiscing on a life I haven’t lived and missing the life I did live in my small southern town.
Like I said earlier teenage me would be confused about what I’m listening to now. For a while country music wasn’t my thing. I didn’t hate it but all I could mostly listen to were old Taylor Swift songs, but since my Zach Bryan discovery, it has opened up the door to many more artists and songs.
One artist that I have also been obsessed with is Lainy Wilson. Like Bryan’s songs, she makes me remember my past with my cousins. Beyonce’s album “Cowboy Carter” also brought this joy and warm feeling to my heart. So I wouldn’t be surprised if when my Spotify wrapped comes out for this year country is my top favorite genre (also if you have any recommendations of artists or songs that give off this vibe please let me know I love discovering new music).
