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Zach Bryan released his fifth studio album, The Great American Bar Scene, on July 4. Feels pretty patriotic to me. 

Bryan spent almost a decade in the United States Navy, where he spent his nights writing music until he earned an honorable discharge in November of 2021 to pursue a music career. Since his debut in 2020, he’s skyrocketed to fame, topping charts, releasing lots of music, and touring the world. 

The Great American Bar Scene comes less than a year after his last self-titled album release. In between that time, he secured his first number one hit with “I Remember Everything,” a duet with Kacey Musgraves, jet-set around the world on his Quittin’ Time tour, and dropped his latest EP, Boys of Faith. 

He’s a pretty busy guy, and yet he still found time to write and record a beautiful, 19 track album. 

Zach Bryan has always taken inspiration from those around him and worn his heart on his sleeve when it comes to his music. His 2019 self-produced debut album, DeAnn, was named after his mother who passed away when he was 20 and his 2020 second album, Elisabeth, was named for and featured artwork of his then-wife Rose Elisabeth Madden. 

The Great American Bar Scene is no different. The album is less about the bar scene and more about the connection between people, particularly those that would be shared in conversation at bars. 

Zach Bryan has been lumped into many different genres over his short, meteoric rise. When “Pink Skies,” a song about the remembrance of Bryan’s mother’s funeral was submitted to pop radio in May, Bryan shot off a tweet that he later deleted: “I’m not a f-cking Pop artist, or country artist leave me out of this.” 

While both genres are present on the album and throughout his music, he doesn’t necessarily fit the mold for either. Due to his rapid growth and success, he’s often been compared to Morgan Wallen, another country artist who shot to stardom during the same time as Bryan. While they are both considered country artists, stark differences appear between them when you listen to their music. 

Bryan’s music takes elements from classic 1970’s country and is perhaps better compared to modern artists like Tyler Childers and Colter Wall. He also works in elements of folk, alt-rock, and Americana, but still struggles to fit inside one, neat box, and maybe that’s his strength. 

The Great American Bar Scene 

The Great American Bar Scene kicks off with a spoken poem called “Lucky Enough,” in which Bryan shares his gratitude for the life he has lived so far and the things he still wishes to experience in the future. 

He acknowledges the fragility of life and the ways in which it makes us stronger, writing, “If I’m lucky enough, I will get through the hard things / and they will make me gentle to the ways of the work / if I’m lucky enough, I’ll have the courage to leave and go / wherever my healthy beatin’ heart tells me to go.” 

The album also features his most recent singles – “Pink Skies,” of which a snippet went viral on TikTok under the assumed track title, “Eulogy,” and “Purple Gas,” the collaboration with up-and-coming country/folk artist Noeline Hoffman. 

Additionally, Zach secured some pretty big names for collaborations on the album – do the names Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer ring a bell? 

Bryan recently brought Springsteen out at his Brooklyn show to perform his fan-favorite song “Revival,” so in many ways, this collaboration was expected. Springsteen features on “Sandpaper,” which in many ways is reminiscent of his classic song “I’m On Fire.” 

Springsteen’s presence is felt elsewhere on the album, though he’s not featured on any other songs. “American Nights” and “Boons” are both Springsteen-esque, and Bryan has indeed been fielding comparisons to the Boss since his earliest releases. 

John Mayer features on “Better Days,” and after the release of the album, Mayer took to Instagram, writing, “I always knew this song Zach wrote was special. I had no idea how beautiful, powerful, and deep an album it would be a part of. I’m stunned.”

Throughout the album, we follow Bryan’s protagonist, Mickey, who first appears on the title track as a malt liquor. Mickey then follows us to “Oak Island,” where he is a railroad worker whose brother has gotten into some trouble. 

“28” was suspected to be about Bryan’s girlfriend, Brianna LaPaglia, but Bryan clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that the song is actually about their dog, Boston. 

“Boston, our puppy was going into surgery, and I told Brianna, ‘How lucky are we?’ to have had a puppy so beautiful, and she came out of it just fine; I wrote it the next day because I felt like the luckiest man on the planet,” he wrote. 

In the preface to the album, Bryan addresses the process of recording the album. 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, laid in the grass of my mother’s hometown, sang ‘State Trooper’ in a bar south of Boston, and wrote something that I think is important. I wrote and produced all of these with the help of some truly great friends. I finally like like I’s making music again. If you don’t like it, assume it’s not intended for you. Grab your beers through tears and fears, ‘the Great American Bar Scene.’”

Overall, The Great American Bar Scene has a formula and sound that is similar to Bryan’s other work. It’s poignant and emotional, and perhaps most expectantly, it’s reliable. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Zach Bryan and I think that’s part of what makes it so charming. 

Listen to The Great American Bar Scene on Spotify below.