walking upstream…
Zach Bryan
photo: katrina paisano · attribution ↗Zach Bryan
sourcesWikipedia · Rolling Stone
Raised in Oologah, Oklahoma and enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 17, Zach Bryan wrote and recorded songs off-duty before a self-shot acoustic video for 'Heading South,' filmed outside his barracks, went viral in 2019 and led to his DIY albums DeAnn and Elisabeth. After his 2021 discharge, his major-label debut American Heartbreak and 2023 self-titled album made him one of the era's biggest live draws, pairing plainspoken, diary-like lyrics with a deliberately raw, unpolished delivery. Bryan wears his admiration for Red Dirt and outlaw-adjacent songwriters like Turnpike Troubadours and John Prine openly, and in 2024 brought his own hero Bruce Springsteen onto his album The Great American Bar Scene.
the sound in question
2022
Something in the OrangeZach Bryan
walk the tributaries ↓
Bruce Springsteen1970s-80s · Rock / Heartland rock / Folk rock
Bryan has called Springsteen one of his biggest heroes and has a lyric from Springsteen's Nebraska track 'State Trooper' tattooed on his arm; in 2024 he invited Springsteen himself onto 'Sandpaper,' a Great American Bar Scene track built on a chugging, tremolo guitar feel widely compared to Springsteen's own 'I'm on Fire.'
listen: upstream & heresource: American Songwriter ↗
1984
I'm on FireBruce Springsteen
2024
SandpaperZach Bryan
listen forListen to the slow-burning, hushed menace of Springsteen's 'I'm on Fire,' then Bryan's 'Sandpaper' — the same tremolo-guitar pulse and restrained, late-night vocal delivery, made explicit by having Springsteen trade verses on the track itself.
Turnpike Troubadours2010s · Red Dirt / Country / Americana
Bryan has repeatedly and publicly praised the Turnpike Troubadours as one of his favorite bands, aligning himself in his breakout 'Heading South' with the Red Dirt and Oklahoma singer-songwriter scene the Troubadours helped define; both acts have shared festival bills and built devoted followings through relentless touring rather than radio.
listen: upstream & here
2010
Diamonds & GasolineTurnpike Troubadours
2024
The Great American Bar SceneZach Bryan
listen forPlay the Troubadours' 'Diamonds & Gasoline' for its dense, small-town narrative detail set against fiddle and steel, then Bryan's own title track 'The Great American Bar Scene' — both turn a barroom full of regulars into a whole fictional universe rather than a generic backdrop.
John Prine1970s · Folk / Country / Americana
In 'Heading South,' the acoustic clip that first made Bryan a viral artist, he named the singer-songwriters he considered his 'kind,' with John Prine chief among them; critics have since placed Bryan in a direct lineage running through Prine's plainspoken, novelistic country-folk songwriting.
listen: upstream & here
1971
Angel from MontgomeryJohn Prine
2019
Heading SouthZach Bryan
listen forCue up Prine's 'Angel from Montgomery,' sung entirely from inside one weary woman's head, then Bryan's 'Heading South' — both trade Nashville polish for a conversational, almost diary-like voice that treats an ordinary life as worth a whole song.