I’ve been to many a show at the Ryman Auditorium, each special in their own right.
But about last night…
Oklahoma native and Navy veteran, Zach Bryan, made his debut at the Mother Church Thursday night to a roaring crowd of fans that would often be heard singing his lyrics louder than he was, almost as if they wrote the songs themselves. All overwhelmingly for good reason, Bryan’s lyrics take the listener on a personal journey through a myriad of life’s subjects; pain, love, loss, and some crazy to boot.
“How do I make you fall in love with me?
Is it lost in the emptiness of apathy?
Should I fight for it like war, should I nail it down to the boards
Or do I live in a love I’m dying for?”
With a distinct grittiness to his voice and in his soul that he masterfully splays wide open in song for the listener to hear, Zach Bryan is a storyteller if I’ve ever heard one. Bringing the old-school melancholy of country music together with the youthfulness of his own 25-year-old heart, his lyrics can’t be felt in the depths of your bones.
Abandoning the risk of sounding cliché, I can honestly say Zach Bryan is a force to be reckoned with in country music, merging old and new, good and evil, joy and sorrow, all into one hell of a show.
There is more to come for this soulful artist. His debut studio album, “American Heartbreak” is slated to drop May 20th.
It’s about dang time.
