Album Feature – Zach Bryan – DeAnn

By Joshua Wallace

I discover new artists in a lot of different ways these days.  I first discovered Zach Bryan from a tweet from Parker McCollum. It read  : “Sitting at a bar in Nashville with my agent telling him about this Zach Bryan kid…. “fucking sign him… just trust me””.  That was a ringing endorsement if I ever saw one. So I looked him up. I didn’t find much. No website, no promotional Facebook page.  Just a personal Facebook, a Twitter account and some YouTube performance videos. Then I found this album DeAnn. It just came out on August 24th, 2019 but the numbers on Spotify are what got me.  His songs are climbing to over 100k listeners fast and as of this writing he’s got 41,759 monthly listeners. That is impressive for a Spotify account that didn’t even have music 2 weeks ago. So what is it about this album that is drawing people in? Let’s take a deeper dive and find out.

The first highlight of this album is “God Speed”.  It’s a song looking inward at Zach’s wants and needs from love, life and everything between.  It’s a great song that sends the message that no matter what you want in life, you’re moving at God’s speed and “Only God and my mama know what I need”.  Another favorite is “Doing Fine” which is a well written track where Zach laments about people he used to know and places he used to go. Songs like this live on the imagery and descriptions and Zach does a good job of painting a picture and taking you back. Whether it’s people he let down or good times he had, this song takes you there.

“Shivers Down Spines” is a great love song on this record.  This is one of the songs where Zach gets to showcase some of his range in both vocal ability and songwriting.  He can be intimate when the song calls for it. I also love the sudden stop at the end of this one as it’s done to a great affect with the song.  Another great love song on this record is “Moon In Oklahoma”. This is another track where the imagery shines. Zach’s lyrics paint a picture that takes you back to scenes from his past.

I could say something about every song on this record, but it’s worth it to seek this one out and listen.  It is raw, rough around the edges and straight up acoustic. Just a man and his guitar. Zach even kept the outtakes like the fit of laughter that ends Condemned.  Zach Bryan shows some skills here and while there is room for improvement, this is a very impressive record for a debut. I cannot wait to hear more from this young man.  He currently does not have much social media presence, or even a website, but you can find his music on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and other digital services. I highly recommend seeking this record out.  It is available as of August 24th, 2019.        

Favorite Tracks : God Speed, Doing Fine, Shivers Down Spines, Moon In Oklahoma

Zach Bryan – DeAnn (2019)

1. Flying Or Crying
2. Hope Again
3. God Speed
4. Don’t Give Up On Me
5. Doing Fine
6. Letting Someone Go
7. Shivers Down Spines
8. Snow
9. Man That’s Never Known You
10. Moon In Oklahoma
11. Condemned
12. Sweet DeAnn