walking upstream…
Zach Bryan
photo: katrina paisano · attribution ↗Zach Bryan
sourcesAmerican Songwriter — Who Is Zach Bryan, and How Did He Shoot to Fame? (biography, DeAnn) · Holler — Zach Bryan · Stony Jammer — The Stories of Zach Bryan's Debut Album, DeAnn (debut album) · Variety — Zach Bryan's 'Bar Scene' Sports Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer Features (Bruce Springsteen influence, 'State Trooper' name-check) · Whiskey Riff — The Top 20 Songs That've Defined Zach Bryan's Explosive Career (Turnpike Troubadours influence, 'East Side of Sorrow' name-check)
Zach Bryan enlisted in the Navy at 17 and wrote songs off-duty for eight years before a barracks-shot iPhone video of 'Heading South' went viral in 2019, launching his debut album DeAnn, named for his late mother. Discharged in 2021, he built an audience without label machinery — plainspoken, unpolished, urgent — and by 2023 his self-titled fourth album and its Kacey Musgraves duet 'I Remember Everything' had made him one of the era's biggest live draws. He wears his influences openly: a Bruce Springsteen lyric tattooed on his arm, a title track that name-checks Springsteen's own songs, and constant public credit to Oklahoma's Turnpike Troubadours and to John Prine's plainspoken tradition. The through-line is a Navy kid's diary turned into arena-filling testimony.
the sound in question
2022
Something in the OrangeZach Bryan
walk the tributaries ↓
Bruce Springsteen1970s-80s · Heartland rock / Rock / Folk rock
Bryan has a lyric from Springsteen's 1982 Nebraska track 'State Trooper' — 'Deliver me from nowhere' — tattooed on his left bicep, and when the two finally sat down together in 2024 he explained exactly why: 'There was a quote somewhere about the writing on Nebraska that really resonated with me a lot: I know with Nebraska, I was interested in making myself as invisible as possible. That's my favorite record ever written.' Months later, Springsteen turned up on Bryan's own record in return.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Zach Bryan Meets Bruce Springsteen (Bruce Springsteen influence) ↗
1982
State TrooperBruce Springsteen
2024
The Great American Bar SceneZach Bryan
listen forPlay Springsteen's 'State Trooper' first — a droning guitar riff, no drums, a half-spoken, half-howled vocal, Nebraska's rawest cut — then Bryan's own title track 'The Great American Bar Scene,' where he orders the jukebox to put 'State Trooper' on by name. It's a rare case of an artist naming the exact source inside the song itself: the debt isn't inferred by a critic, it's printed in the lyric.
Turnpike Troubadours2010s · Red Dirt / Country / Americana
Years before either was famous, Bryan met Turnpike Troubadours guitarist Ryan Engleman in a jail holding cell as a teenager. He heard nothing more until a letter arrived out of nowhere: 'I get a letter three years ago. It's just in an envelope, I didn't know what it was. So, I opened it and it was a note that says "Stay out of jail, f—er." It was from Ryan Engleman from Turnpike Troubadours,' Bryan told a crowd that had just watched the band open for him. 'They're our favorite band in the entire world.'
listen: upstream & heresource: American Songwriter — Zach Bryan Recalls the 5-Word Letter From His 'Favorite Band' (Turnpike Troubadours influence) ↗
2010
Diamonds & GasolineTurnpike Troubadours
2023
East Side of SorrowZach Bryan
listen forBryan pays the debt back by name: in 'East Side of Sorrow' he sings that he heard Turnpike was 'back together and writing songs.' Play Turnpike's 'Diamonds & Gasoline' first — fiddle and steel wrapped around a small town's worth of names and grudges, thick enough to fill a novel — then listen for that same instinct to fill a song with a whole population running underneath Bryan's own verses.
John Prine1970s · Folk / Country / Americana
When fans noticed Bryan had reused the title of John Prine's final, posthumous song, he didn't dodge it. Asked if his 2023 duet was a cover, he answered plainly: 'No, and I wish it was. I originally changed the name out of respect but just didn't sit right after I wrote the song, hopefully it's taken as homage.' Prine's son and fellow musician Tommy Prine wrote back with a blessing of his own: 'I'm Stoked to hear it man!'
listen: upstream & heresource: American Songwriter — The Meaning Behind Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' 'I Remember Everything' (John Prine influence) ↗
2020
I Remember EverythingJohn Prine
2023
I Remember EverythingZach Bryan
listen forThe two songs share no melody — Bryan's is a hushed duet with Kacey Musgraves, Prine's a solo farewell — but cue them back to back and the audible debt is the restraint: both trade any big chorus for a bare acoustic pulse and a plainspoken vocal that never oversells the ache. Prine wrote his as a goodbye in 2020; three years later, Bryan borrowed only the title and the hush around it.