2022 will forever go down as the year of Zach Bryan. After dropping the 34-track album, American Heartbreak, in May and following that up with the 9-track EP, Summertime Blues in July, Bryan let everyone know that he wasn’t planning on slowing down any time soon with the release of Burn, Burn, Burn in September. The track racked up over 175,000 views the first day it was posted on Aug. 17, 2022; however, Bryan took the original video down before announcing the song’s official release on September 8. Burn, Burn, Burn is arguably Bryan at his most personal. He’s not…
Author: Brennen Kelly
In 2019, Randy Houser dropped a hidden gem of an album, Magnolia. The record truly broke the bro-country stereotype that Houser had been previously associated with and is packed with gorgeous tracks; however, one stands out. That song is Evangeline. Unlike the rowdy, rockin’ songs that Houser had become famous for during the 2010s such as Runnin’ Outta Moonlight and How Country Feels, Evangeline ultimately feels like a much more delicate song that would feel right at home in the discography of the singer/songwriters of today such as Charles Wesley Godwin and Zach Bryan. The aforementioned delicacy of the track…
After a six-year-long hiatus, the Turnpike Troubadours are back with their fifth studio album, A Cat in the Rain. It’s been a long time coming for the legendary Red Dirt band, and the expectations from everyone in the independent country scene were through the roof. The question that remains is: “Was it worth the wait?” To preface this review, I want to express just how happy I am that Evan Felker and Co. are back together creating music. Though this review will still be as objective as possible, I feel that it would be amiss to not note how important…
The wait is finally over. After months of speculation, tweets, retractions and false release dates, Zach Bryan has finally released his highly-anticipated follow-up to 2022’s American Heartbreak, a self-titled and independently produced record. If you haven’t been keeping up with the rollout of the album, the record was first confirmed to have an August release date by Bryan himself on TikTok back in July. Flash forward to August 8th and Wesley Schultz, the lead vocalist of The Lumineers, posted a snippet of Spotless with the caption, “His album drops August 19!” This, of course, sent the internet into a frenzy…
August 24, 2019. Before he was one of the biggest stars in the country genre, the former Navy member, Zach Bryan, took his friends to Florida and produced a 12-song, fully independent project titled DeAnn. To say the rest is history is an understatement. DeAnn was famously recorded in an Airbnb in Jacksonville, Florida. With absolutely no experience recording music, Bryan and Co. marched into the said Airbnb, stood mattresses up against the walls to absorb sound and created something completely raw and refreshing. In an interview with Saving Country Music, he described his hesitation to record the album without…
Southern rock and country music have shared a particularly close connection. From Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Eagles to Blackberry Smoke and the Drive-By Truckers, nearly every decade has had flashes of brilliance when the two genres are blended together. Today, Joe Stamm Band is attempting to do the same with their third studio album, Wild Man. When you first listen to Wild Man, the first thing that will most likely stick out is the fine line the band rides between country and southern rock. While admittedly, I believe the more traditionally country-leaning tracks are the strongest on the record, the…