Zach Bryan remains one of the biggest and most promising country artists performing today. Something in The Orange, I Remember Everything, he's a critical darling with strong numbers to back him up. Nashville may embrace him a little differently from how they do with Lainey Wilson or Morgan Wallen. Regardless, Bryan cannot be divorced from the genre at this point in his career. However, it seems like he's thorny to the idea of being a country artist.
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Recently, Zach Bryan speaks with Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone's latest Musicians on Musicians issue. There, he talks about how Springsteen records are only ever a couple steps away from being country. Moreover, Bryan emphasizes that his ideal stems much further than the confines of one genre. "I don't want to be a country musician. Everyone calls me it. I want to be a songwriter, and you're quintessentially a songwriter," Zach explains. "No one calls Bruce Springsteen - I hate to use your name in front of you - but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician. Which, you are one, but you're also an indie musician, you're also a country musician. You're all these things encapsulated in one man. And that's what songwriting is."
Zach Bryan Gets Candid on the Current State of America
Elsewhere in the interview, Bruce Springsteen gives his take on the current election cycle. Additionally, it leads to him speaking on the division within the United States. He argues that, eventually, we'll get past the deeply rooted divide between Americans but ultimately bails on getting too deep about it. Zach Bryan counters with his own point. "So, I'm 28. I don't have that much experience. I'm neither one way or the other," he emphasizes. "I served my country for eight, nine years. I think America ebbs and flows, and it always has. Always will. I'm tired of everyone arguing."
Then, Zach stresses the need to be plain grateful to be an American. "It's about time people were just thankful to be American. 'Cause personally, I'm so grateful I get to wake up in a country that's free. It's really special to be in a country where there's so many different people and so many different parties and so many people that have an opportunity to come together and be kind to each other and respect each other's backgrounds. There's people that have died defending our rights. Men and women have died for these things, and we just are, like, pissed about what?" Bryan questions.
An incredibly ungraceful take that lacks quite a bit of nuance. But I can tell Zach Bryan's heart is in the right place about it.
