{"id":5624,"date":"2024-07-05T16:56:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T21:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5624"},"modified":"2024-07-10T16:02:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T21:02:09","slug":"this-is-bryans-great-american-bar-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5624","title":{"rendered":"This Is Bryan\u2019s Great American Bar Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 313 days after Zach Bryan released his self-titled fourth album, he scored his first No. 1 single alongside Kacey Musgraves and headlined no fewer than 58 arenas, stadiums, and festivals, further cementing his legend as a self-made megastar whose ascendance looks, at least from the outside, like it\u2019s skipped all the hard parts.<\/p>\n

And then, on the 314th day, he released The Great American Bar Scene, a 19-track follow-up that dispenses with any questions about his ability to remain almost laughably prolific as he\u2019s learning how to adjust to it all in real time. Like its immediate predecessor, The Great American Bar Scene opens with a spoken-word soliloquy about good fortune and good morals that burnishes the Oklahoman\u2019s earnest, everybro cred, serving as a mission statement of sorts for the 18 songs that follow\u2014and, really, for Bryan\u2019s whole deal.<\/p>\n

At only 28, he is a master of nostalgia, bathing the libertine spirit of past generations and 2021 in the same sepia light. Bryan\u2019s grappling with his recent past isn\u2019t just subtext; it\u2019s in the songs. In \u201cNorthern Thunder,\u201d a wistful slow-burn ballad characteristic of the album\u2019s overall vibe, he\u2019s still processing a mix of homesickness and shock:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd please don\u2019t ask me how these last years went\/Mama, I made a million dollars on accident\/I was supposed to die a military man\/Chest out too far with a drink in my hand\/But I\u2019ve got folks who like hearing me rhyme\/I think of thunder under metal roofs all the time.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u201cLike Ida\u201d reaffirms his aversion to the Music City machine, even if the feeling isn\u2019t mutual: \u201cWhen you make it to Nashville you can tell from one hat tilt\/That shit just ain\u2019t my scene\/I like out-of-tune guitars and taking jokes too far\/And my bartenders extra damn mean.\u201d<\/h5>\n
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Stream The Great American Bar Scene.<\/a> Image Courtesy Of Apple Services.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is Bryan\u2019s great American bar scene: less shout-along rave-ups exhorting you to go out and get drunk than evocative meditations on your inalienable right, and frequent need, to go out and get drunk. The title track is a barroom serenade that name-checks Springsteen\u2019s spare, pitch-black Nebraska track \u201cState Trooper\u201d; \u201cSandpaper\u201d pays off the reference with an appearance by Springsteen himself that plays like a heartland-rock Looper\u2014a weathered elder meeting a younger version of himself who already has seen so much. (It also sounds more than a little like \u201cI\u2019m On Fire.\u201d)<\/p>\n

And for all of Bryan\u2019s humility, he\u2019s self-aware enough to lean into the romance of his origin story and underdog status, numbers be damned\u2014he is nothing if not an elite storyteller.<\/p>\n

Every product\/service is selected by editors. Things you buy through these links may earn “Alliance Media Group and “Streamapse Magazine” a commission or revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 313 days after Zach Bryan released his self-titled fourth album, he scored his first No. 1 single alongside Kacey Musgraves and headlined no fewer than 58 arenas, stadiums, and festivals, further cementing his legend as a self-made megastar whose ascendance looks, at least from the outside, like it\u2019s skipped all the hard parts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-streamapse-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5652,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions\/5652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}