This was the summer when the world woke up to country music. Or, more accurately, when the rest of the world caught on to what some of us had been saying for years. Luke Combs at Wembley was the most obvious evidence, but before that, Zach Bryan had brought his own stadium show to London, playing Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as part of his mammoth With Heaven On Tour run.
Quite where Bryan finds the time is another matter. “With Heaven On Top” arrived in January with 25 songs, and now here comes “Young Manhood And Other Donatable Organs”, another eight tracks in half an hour. There seems to be an awful lot he needs to get off his chest.
The opening “Lodi When” is a reminder, too, that for all the crowds he attracts, Bryan has more in common with Jason Isbell than Luke Combs. There is always something interesting happening in his writing, always the feeling that he is trying to work something out as much as tell you about it. That restless quality runs through everything here.
“Robot Killed The Working Man” is perhaps the highlight. It considers the changes technology has brought and the people left to deal with the consequences. Those homegrown tomatoes ripening and rotting are a wonderfully simple image of something much bigger, and his sarcastic question about what humanity’s giant step has achieved lands exactly as intended. There is something of Drive-By Truckers in its outlook, while the fiddles give the song a life that all the supposed progress in the world cannot replace.
“Lies”, featuring Lana Del Rey, turns the focus towards the breakdown of a relationship. A tear-jerking ballad, it finds Del Rey absolutely superb, and the pain between the two voices feels real. You believe in these people, and you believe in the mess they have made of things. That is what makes it hurt.
There is superb harmonica on “Dog Days”, another song that offers more than it might first appear to. The idea of spending your life writing things down only to end up righting your wrongs feels central to the whole collection. “I ain’t a boy, darling, I’m all the way grown,” he sings, although you do wonder whether he is trying to convince himself.
“Backwards” feels similarly personal. “I don’t trust anyone anymore,” he sings, as the guitar wails around him. The music carries the frustration as much as the words do, and it is another reminder of how much Bryan can communicate when everything pulls in the same direction.
The second set of guests, Turnpike Troubadours, are magnificent on “Plainsman”. The fiddles wail here, too, and there is a real sense of musicians finding common ground. Given the quality of the people involved, you might have expected something special. They deliver it.
“Is The Blue Tangled In You?” is a title that almost says enough on its own, even before the suggestion: “Ain’t you gonna be yourself and fuck up everything?” There is a brutal self-awareness in that line, and Bryan’s willingness to leave it exposed gives the song its force.
If he is a modern-day troubadour, then “You’ll Get By” is perhaps the clearest expression of that here. Reflective and thoughtful, it brings things back to the business of learning how to grow. That growth shows itself again and again across these songs, even when certainty remains harder to find.
There are so many ideas in this half an hour, so much going on, and so much that feels worth returning to. Zach Bryan is one of the most interesting artists around right now. “Young Manhood And Other Donatable Organs” gives you eight more reasons to think so.
8.5/10
