Zach Bryan in Cork: How has the US star become such a phenomenon in Ireland?
Zach Bryan on stage at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork, over the weekend. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Question: How has US country singer-songwriter Zach Bryan quietly evolved into such a phenomenal icon for virtually an entire generation of 20-somethings? Answer: The singalongable authenticity of his songs.
His weekend shows at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork were a thing of beauty to behold. A very simple type of beauty, but with a purity that sustains a connection with countless thousands of young Irish people.
Introducing his song on Sunday night, Bryan said: “I feel like I’m the most pleased man on the planet when I sing this song for you. I never dreamed when I wrote this song that I would end up singing it for 50,000 people in Ireland.”
How does a 30-year-old cowboy crooner from Oologah, Oklahoma, write lyrics that are clearly so personal to him and yet so deeply moving for this audience?
has a big chorus with a sharp, ground-level focus: “I'm movin' at God speed; Only God and my mama know what I need; And I feel the hardwood floors on my knees; As I beg you just to take it easy on me; I'm movin' at God speed.”
At one level, it’s a good old ‘I want my baby back’ love song. But it has something bigger than that. Maybe it’s the truth in this grit that you can’t deny; some hardwood floors stay knotty and gnarly no matter how much you sand them.
And it is this honesty that ultimately ensures we all warm to Bryan. It’s also notable that in most of these songs, the outcomes are positive and uplifting.
The heroes emerge from the pickup truck-stops and greasy diners with a belly full of determination to overcome whatever challenges lie ahead. The skid row hobo reaches for the sky, the coke-fond girl takes a Greyhound bus to escape her small town blues, the single-parent kid vows to live a better life than his gambling waster dad.
Somehow, while very MTV, the pit stop and pool hall imagery finds a natural home in all of our souls. Songs like and all come with a pithy force that crunches you right in the solar plexus no matter how hard you try to resist.
And, of course, the tunes are as huge as they are simple and honest. Tens of thousands of young people singing along to every word. In an age of puff AI elevator music, a joyful young singalong crowd is a heartening sight indeed.
Bryan's tunes are powerful, his lyrics are real. Not country and western clichés. We all know the old joke: "What happens when you play a country song backwards? You get your truck back, your dog back, and your ex back!"
The 30-year-old uses the C&W imagery, but he’s not adrift in it.
In his Cuban cowboy heels and plain grey cut-off tee-shirt, badass bicep tattoos, Indian ink guns ablazing, there’s no denying Bryan has deeply relatable hometown charm. He’s true, he’s honest. We love him because he wears his heart on his sleeve. Well, he would – if only he had a sleeve.
