Awaiting The Great American Bar Scene
"The boys they always tell me that my words get 'em by"
Somewhere, somehow a few years ago I started listening to Zach Bryan. His music has been moving me so much lately. He’s releasing his latest album, The Great American Bar Scene later this week for the Fourth Of July, and I type these words from my parents home in Kentucky. I’m thinking about place, also after hanging out with my dear friend Ivey, roaming her farm in Texas. On the long flights over from Australia, I listened to quite a lot of Zach Bryan. As I appreciate being back and think about land, home and love, I have included some beautiful Zach Bryan songs and lyrics.
Zach Bryan is a 28-year-old American man, born to military parents on a base in Japan. He grew up in Oologah, Oklahoma. His parents divorced when he was 12, and Zach’s father had full custody of him and his sister. Like his father, Zach too joined the military after high school. His mother struggled with alcoholism and passed away in 2016. He writes about his mom a lot in his songs, and his first album DeAnn is named after her. Zach served in the Navy for eight years and it was while he was serving he started uploading videos of himself playing songs. Here’s the first song he ever uploaded.
In some of his songs he laments the criticism he gets for his music sounding the same, but I disagree with the haters. His voice is distinctive, but every song sounds different, especially because of the words and the passion in which he sings. “Authenticity” comes up a lot when people discuss Zach Bryan, but I love his lyrics the most, all about nihilism, nature, substance, god, family and reckless love. It’s about this tone in his voice, the way it cracks sometimes, like he’s about to cry or yell. You can particularly hear it in “Condemned.” His songs are a lot of acoustic guitar, but he’ll throw in some harmonicas and fiddles to keep the feet stomping. It’s a little bit country, but not top-40 country. Far more folky/Americana. I love how he makes a joke about country music like in ”If She Wants a Cowboy.”
Let’s start with my favorite lines from his song “Condemned”
”I'm condemned, I'm condemned
Oh my heart is on the mend
Nobody gives a damn about me
You can tell me that you love me 'til your little lungs turn blue
But I'm always alone when I fall asleep
And the girls that walk downtown
Are like some stars that fell to earth
They like the veins in my arms
And the story in my hurt
The boys they always tell me that my words get 'em by
They can tell how much I mean it by the bloodshot in my eye”
I enjoy the enormous number of comments on Zach Bryan’s YouTube from people all over the world, telling Zach how his songs help them get through hard times.
Next up is “God Speed,” from DeAnn, released in 2019.
Someone recently said to me on my travels, “Godspeed” and it seemed nice, kind of like when someone says god bless you. Even if you don’t believe in god, there’s something pure about the concept of a greater being watching out for you.
”Well, I wanna see the road melt
Into the mountains away as I drive
And make it out of this damn town alive
And not let the dreams I shoulder die
'Cause I'm movin' at God speed
Only God and my mama know what I need
And I feel the hardwood floors on my knees
As I beg you just to take it easy on me
Also on the DeAnn album, “letting someone go”
“You can't lie to yourself
After loving something true
And I've never loved a soul
Quite the way that I loved you
You told me you despise
Everything that I've become
How we always turn into
All the things we're running from”
It’s the last line in that one that really punches me in the gut.
”Snow” also from DeAnn
”I hear Jesus makes sin white as linen
Like the sheets that we're in
And your teeth when you're grinnin'
Take it away and you give it to God
Like the night you dumped out
All the liquor I bought
And there's a way the grass smells
On a summer night
When it's freshly cut the moisture's right
It's nights like these in the August heat
I think the Devil's just another boy I can beat”
Let’s move on to his next album in 2020, Elisabeth.
”Come As You Are” is something I heard a lot growing up in Christian faith, but in this song, Zach makes it about coming of age, forgiveness and new beginnings.
”Come as you are, however broken
And we will see if we can make you whole again
Come as you are with your heart wide open
Bridges that you've burned
They are still there just floatin'
Remember us in our bright-eyed days
Too young to go inside
Sittin' drunk on curbs tryin' to get us ourselves a ride
Of the pretty girls who walk down there on Elgin Avenue
Oklahoma sure is quiet, but it has itself a view”
Now that I love Zach Bryan, I also want to visit Oklahoma. Here’s his really beautiful music video, “Oklahoma Smoke Show.”
Elisabeth also has great song called “Revival,” much like “Come As You Are.”
“Gather round this table, boys
Bring your shame, I'll lose my voice
Screaming at the gods about the bad we've done
Merle said mama tried but the prison still won
Your transgressions are mine as well
Anger grows in my bones if you could not tell
But I'll find comfort in company
Lord forgive us, my boys and me
We're having an all night revival
Someone call the women and someone steal the bibles
For the sake of my survival
Baptize me in a bottle of Beam and put Johnny on the vinyl”
I would love to keep going but unless some serious Zach Bryan fans stumble upon these lyrics, I doubt my current subscribers have made it this far. Let’s start wrapping up with his latest song, “Pink Skies,” which will be a part of his upcoming album. I didn’t LOVE this song the first time I heard it. But then I played it again, and now I do.
“Your funeral was beautiful
I bet God heard you comin'”
Wait one more! It’s just some quick lines from “Summertime Blues.”
“Hilton Head and the Hamptons
Where the rich all go to die
The young kids all get high
Just to pass time
I bought a bottle of the best bourbon
A beat down boy could buy
I'm gonna bury all my sorrow
As the summertime passes by”
Here’s what I’ve been learning about this week.
In the last four days I have taken four flights (some of them v big), so I have had time to watch movies. Here is what I watched based on different airline movie options complete with jet-lagged reviews and spoiler alerts.
Bodyguard (Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.) The premise was great, the plot and dialogue, not so great. Good acting by both Houston and Costner, though. I love his stoic, orange-juice drinking dedication to keeping her alive while simultaneously teasing her perpetually, sleeping with her but not ever actually falling in love with her. (Or maybe he did, and just didn’t give it away?!) She’s the hottest star on earth, how could he not cave?!! What diligence. Super sexy in theory but weird stuff happened in the film like the sister planning to kill her. That made me go “Wait what???”
I watched the Pelican Brief and it was probably the best done of all the movies in my marathon. Great premise, great acting, completely believable whodunnit. It’s theme about protecting marshlands was nice, as was the budding romance between Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. I love the idea of how a hunch from a humble law student could bring the American Government, CIA, Secret Service etc. to its knees. Thanks good ol’ John Grisham.
I watched The Replacements, based on a true story. Rich football stars go on strike so they bring in the misfits! The misfits bring teamwork and heart and go to the Superbowl! Keanu Reeves leaves his life of cleaning scum off boats to briefly be the star quarterback, plus he’s so hot. It’s so funny to watch football movies and shows now while living abroad and understanding better how the rest of the world views the very American sport I grew up with.
I watched One Love, the new Bob Marley movie. It made me realize how little I know about Jamaica and now I’d like to go. I’m interested in learning more about Bob’s wife Rita, played by Lashana Linch. I like that the movie they all spoke with authentic Jamaican accents, even though I felt like I was only understanding about ⅔ of the film as a result. I just read all about the authenticity of the accents in the film in this Guardian article.
Also Delta (of course) has a documentary you can watch called Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President. My parents have been telling me how great the 39th US president is for my whole life and evidently I saw him speak in Georgia as a kid! Now that I’ve watched the film I love him so much more. It’s a documentary, so it’s biased, but it really gave me respect for his humble southern roots and big efforts for peace. I now know about the Camp David Accords. It’s cool that even though he only served one term he and his wife went back to the small town in Plains, Georgia where they first started as peanut farmers and continued to make good things happen. Watching that after hearing snippets from Trump/Biden’s presidential debate last week made me very much understand why some folks say our nation is in decline.
Speaking of, Happy Early Independence Day to those who celebrate! I love you Zach Bryan!