For a guy who was on active duty in the Navy until late 2021, Zach Bryan has already established quite the musical career for himself. While enlisted, he wrote music in his spare time, self-recording and releasing it on YouTube and social media. And just three years after his first viral success, Bryan is one of country music's most popular new stars.
Bryan first caught attention in 2019 with "Heading South," his self-released breakout song. In the video — which, as of press time, has more than 19 million views on YouTube — a sweaty, rosy-cheeked Bryan hunches over his guitar, singing lyrics that turned out to be remarkably prescient: "Boys we've got a riser/ A riser in our midst."
In that video and still today, Bryan's music feels raw and intimate — it'd be easy to imagine him jamming on your front porch on a summer evening, but these days he's selling out multi-thousand seat venues. With his raspy voice and relatable, vulnerable lyrics, Bryan has built a massive following of country and non-country fans alike.
His mainstream breakout, 2022's "Something In The Orange," has both critically and commercially proven Bryan's appeal. In addition to earning Bryan his first GRAMMY nomination (the song is up for Best Country Solo Performance at the 2023 GRAMMYs), "Something In The Orange" recently cracked the top 10 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 after 38 weeks on the chart, and landed Bryan his first No. 1 on both Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts in January.
In the track, a husky-voiced and contemplative Bryan sings to a lost love, hoping she'll give him a second chance. The song's sincerity struck a chord with listeners, who filled the YouTube comments section with comments like "I'm not a fan of country music, but, this song is helping me through a very rough situation," "I just felt this in my soul," and "this is by far the most powerful song I have ever listened to."
Bryan hasn't slowed down since the "Heading South" video went viral. He recorded and self-released his first album, DeAnn — named for his late mother — in 2019, followed by his second self-released album, Elisabeth, in 2020. The next year, he made his Grand Ole Opry debut, signed a record deal with Warner Records, and was honorably discharged from the Navy so he could be a full-time musician. But 2022 was easily his biggest year yet.
In May, Bryan released his major label debut, the triple album, American Heartbreak. The LP broke the record for most global streams of a country album in a 24-hour period; just three days after its release, the album had been streamed more than a billion times. Displaying Bryan's widespread impact, Heartbreak topped album charts in country, folk and rock — solidifying him as one of music's most promising new voices.
American Heartbreak is a treatise on the human condition. Supported by guitar, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica, Bryan works his way through life experiences — both his and others' — singing about love, loss, heartbreak, addiction, recovery and hope. The Bryan of American Heartbreak sounds very similar to the Bryan many first heard on "Heading South," but with a more sophisticated, contemplative bent — perhaps because, as Bryan said recently, "I believe that the best songs are written after the best living's done."
"I would say true love of anything is supposed to rip your heart out and put it back together all in the same go 'round. This album to me is all the trials we face day-in and day out," Bryan told Amnplify. "American Heartbreak is my effort at trying to explain what being a 26-year-old man in America is like."
Bryan, who was raised in Oologah, Oklahoma, began dabbling in songwriting as a teenager — though he didn't necessarily see it as a career path. "I just never really expected to be a musician, ever," he told the Oklahoman last year. "But I always wanted to write songs. That's what I wanted to do: I wanted to be a songwriter."
Although he is now definitively a musician, Bryan is wary of the fame often inherent to mainstream success; a 2022 New York Times profile dubbed him "Music's Most Reluctant New Star." And like many of his genre-bending peers, he's also not looking to be put in a box.
"I decided to record American Heartbreak in New York because I didn't want it to sound like anything else," he wrote in a note on Instagram upon the release of American Heartbreak. "At the risk of sounding pretentious; I don't want a genre, I don't want a scene, I don't want a title, I just want to make music."
Leaning into his new career's momentum, Bryan released music at a lightning-fast pace in 2022. Less than two months after the release of American Heartbreak, he delivered even more music with Summertime Blues, a 9-track EP, followed by a handful of singles, including the gut-wrenching breakup track, "Starved" and "Burn, Burn, Burn," a fast-rhyming slow song longing for the simple things in life.
Bryan's dedication to his music is certainly paying off. He has sold out shows across the country, Heartbreak debuted at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200 album chart and peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart — making it one of the most successful country music album debuts in history — and he finished the year with the No. 2 slot on Billboard's Year-End chart of Top New Artists.
Bryan wrapped up his big year with one more release, a live album (recorded during his sold-out Red Rocks show) cheekily titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster in a nod to his dislike for the company's control over concert ticket prices. Staying true to his independent roots and outsider brand, Bryan announced that for his summer 2023 Burn Burn Burn Tour, he'll primarily sell tickets through AXS, and not allow marked-up resale tickets.
As he has navigated his unexpected success, Bryan is already feeling just how draining it can be; as he told NYT, "People don't understand the pressure exerting emotion on other people exerts back on you." Even so, seeing the impact his songs have had on others keeps him going.
"I can't stop writing," Bryan added in the NYT interview. "I have this weird fear of like, if I don't put this music out, someone 20 years from now isn't going to be able to hear it. If some kid needs this in 40 years and he's 16, he's sitting in his room, what if I didn't put out 'Quiet, Heavy Dreams'? What if that's his favorite song of all time?"
Male vulnerability in country music often falls within narrow lines — heartbreak and anger — but Bryan allows himself and his songs to be sensitive outside those boundaries, displaying a raw honesty that's resonated with millions of people. With nearly 50 new songs in 2022, and a new single in 2023 already ("Dawns," a duet with Maggie Rogers), Bryan is well on his way to realizing his songwriting dreams, which means as much to him as it does his fans.
"I write because it's just like how I deal with life," Bryan told Music Mayhem Magazine last year. "Just like people watch sports, just like people go golf, just like people listen to music, it's just something that comes naturally to me, which is beautiful to find that and get to do that."