In the past few months, Zach Bryan has been the subject of a whole lot of weird internet drama involving his ex-girlfriend and her employers at Barstool Sports. Bryan's last two singles, "This World's A Giant" and "High Road," arrived in the midst of all that, and it probably didn't do the songs any favors. But nothing is going to stop Bryan from dropping new singles for his own reasons, especially when his team clinches a spot in the Super Bowl.
Yesterday, Bryan's beloved Philadelphia Eagles stomped all over the Washington Commanders and won the NFC Championship. Next month, they'll go on to face the Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch, which means we're all Eagles fans now. (Not all of us, but you know what I mean.) Last week, Bryan posted a snippet of a new song on Instagram, and he wrote, "IF THE BIRDS WIN THE NFC BLUE JEAN BABY IS OUT SUNDAY NIGHT. WRITTEN AND RECORDED IN PHILLY." When the Eagles won yesterday, Bryan confirmed that the song was about to arrive, and he added, "SEE YALL IN NEW ORLEANS. EP AND ALBUM BY THE END OF THE YEAR."
On his Instagram story, Bryan posted that "Blue Jean" isn't supposed to be a major work: "blue jean baby was a demo turned into a half song that people have been asking for for a long time. Praying no one expects anything more than that out of it." But that's most Zach Bryan songs, right? The song itself is a barrel-chested country-rocker with a chorus that may allude to Bryan's recent romantic entanglements: "American girls love goodbyes/ And I've been gettin' by on pinin' for it/ I need to rest my eyes/ It's a long way home and it's four in the mornin'." This might not be a surprise, considering the shared Springsteen connection and all, but this one reminds me of the Gaslight Anthem. Listen below.
In further Zach Bryan news, he recently posted another interesting piece of audio on Instagram. It's a voice clip of Matthew McConaughey, star of Bryan's "Nine Ball" video, announcing what appears to be a Zach Bryan movie project: "This is not a film about a band. This is a film about a boy from Oklahoma, a boy who joined the Navy, with a love of writing. That writing connected with people, a lot of people. This film is about a group of best friends taking a two-week motorcycle ride across America, while recording one final major-label album. Oh, and the title of the film, you ask? Motorbreath."
In a couple of days, Bryan will also release a new collaboration. He and singer-songwriter Jack Van Cleaf re-recorded Van Cleaf's 2022 song "Rattlesnake" as a duet. Bryan calls it "one of the best written songs of all time." Last year, Bryan did something similar with Noeline Hofmann's "Purple Gas."
If Bryan is serious about dropping "one final major-label album" in 2025, then that'll be four LPs in four years, on top of all the EPs and live records and one-off singles. That's quite a run.
