To those coming to this album as a gateway, I think you could just check out some of the guests featured on it to find other stuff they'd probably like. I can't imagine enjoying this one and not digging some of those John Moreland albums, or something like Such Jubilee from Mandolin Orange/Watchhouse (featured on "Pink Skies").
It inspired this reaction because most country i've listened to has been stuff I up dislike. Whether it be sad boy country, bro country, chart (in the US anyway, country doesn't have much traction in the UK) country, classic country (Johnny Cash aside, i'm not a monster), it's all been something that just doesn't sit with me and makes me want to turn it off. This is a genuine anomaly, hence my reaction. I don't think "there may be other stuff I may enjoy" because i've heard so much that I haven't liked that it's hard not to think of this as anything other than a one off.
if you ever get a chance to see him live do it, it was like part concert, part story telling and part comedy show, it was amazing
The Such Jubilee LP is precious. Old Ties & Companions off of that hits as hard today as it did the first time I heard it nearly a decade ago.
Not country, but Zach Bryan is a big fan of Hey, Nothing, and I'm gonna drop the band thread in here for them, because I'm sick of the silence surrounding them. (ZB shares their music all the time)
I guess I find it surprising that Zach would be THE anomaly, since he pulls so liberally from so many other country, Americana, folk, and roots rock artists who came before him. I love his music, but I don’t think he’s doing anything particularly unique in this genre space. And he’s pretty forthright about that, to the point of putting his influences on his records. I guess I can’t totally see liking Zach Bryan and not finding any value in, like, Jason Isbell, or Tyler Childers, or John Moreland, or Turnpike Troubadours, or all these similar left-of-center country artists that he’s such a clear descendant of. It’s astonishingly good. Extremely pretty music that grapples with touring life, and the concept of home, and gun violence, and all these other things in really thoughtful, resonant ways. One of my favorite country albums of the 2010s, for sure.
honestly the like 11 minute version of it he plays to end each show is almost worth the cost of admission by itself.
My cousin and I played that cassette single so much as kids it literally fell apart. That or my mom cut the tape and just told us that’s what happened idk
A lot of Zach's older stuff is better live than the record versions. Quittin' Time on the Summertime Blues EP is another example. The record version is slower and lacks the punch that it has live (AMHHTM Live Version >>>).
I was like this about 7-8 years ago but have totally changed my POV and honestly like country as much, or more (in general) than rock at this point. At a certain point you realize that a lot of the "rock" bands you love from the 70's-90's would be called "country" or at least country-adjacent today - Tom Petty, etc. A lot of it blends together for me, in a way. So much of the country stuff I like leans towards folk/americana anyway (ZB, Isbell, etc) and there are just so many new great artists in this genre. I went from liking, like 1-2 acts in this category to 20-25 pretty quickly. But yes, bro country still sucks.
I've been checking out a few of his tracks after the feature on this album, am I crazy or does his voice sound super reminiscent of Jakob Dylan?>
My family went nuts with that Greatest Hits album early/mid 90s. It's wild to me there's people who don't enjoy Alan Jackson. Chasin' That Neon Rainbow and Don't Rock The Jukebox are GOATED for me.