Brian McCollumDetroit Free Press
When Zach Bryan was still a relative unknown, which feels like just a few blinks ago, it might have been hard to imagine that he and his introspective songs of lonely roads, broken characters and heartache could soar big the way they did Thursday night.
But at a sold-out Ford Field, one of the first stadium shows in his fast-blossoming career, the Oklahoma-bred singer-songwriter made it work in the giant room, deftly operating in a musical zone where red dirt country, folk, indie rock and bluegrass seamlessly mingled.
For nearly two hours — a solid one-eighth of which was occupied by the rambunctious closing jam “Revival” — Bryan had an audience of 46,510 hanging on his every word and guitar strum inside the Lions’ den as he hit Detroit on his Quittin Time Tour. And it represented a remarkable rise for a cult-favorite artist whose only prior visits brought him to the far smaller confines of the Fillmore and Majestic theaters.
With his approachable onstage manner, Bryan can give off the feel of a small-town open-mic amateur made good. And in a sense, that’s exactly what he is. But there are also strains of Springsteen running through his work — and he’s even got his own rollicking, frolicking E Street sort of band to drive it home in concert.
Thursday, he served up nicotine-stained ruminations and farm-to-table vignettes of Americana for an exuberant crowd that was as happy to give back as it was to receive, often overtaking Bryan with stadium-wide singalongs. His seven-piece backing outfit, which got to stretch its legs on numbers such as “Fifth of May,” lathered on enough fiddle, steel guitar and banjo to maintain links to twangy tradition without sinking it all in rote nostalgia.
Despite a name that almost seems designed by committee for mainstream country success circa 2024, Zach Bryan is no standard star. He’s one of the more interesting figures happening in popular music right now — a chart-topping hitmaker with enough self-awareness to speak vigilantly of fame’s dangers, a critically beloved artist frank about his creative insecurities.
Bryan blazed his explosive career path while eschewing many of the machinations that come with the territory, initially cultivating an audience via social media and hitting the national radar while still active in the U.S. Navy.
So while there’s an authenticity and purity of purpose to his musical ways, there was no creased-brow Serious Artist onstage at Ford Field, where Bryan spent the evening in a sleeveless Detroit T-shirt ("Where the Weak are Killed and Eaten"). The chatty front man was fun and self-effacing, peppering his song introductions with a cheeky refrain: “Hope you guys don’t hate it.”
Bryan’s unorthodox tack was on display before his set even started. When he stepped out to join Isbell for a surprise guest spot on “King of Oklahoma,” he was breaking concert convention simply by showing his face before his own headlining turn. The message was implicit: This thing is about the songs, not the showbiz.
The 28-year-old is certainly no virtuoso singer, but he gets by with a rough expressiveness that helps his contemplative, detail-laden tunes land with conviction. His growls and rock shouts were judiciously placed for impact, acting as emotional exclamation marks in his delivery. Bryan’s prolific songwriting prioritizes words over hooks and melody, and it was fascinating Thursday to watch that kind of approach magnetize a packed stadium.
He and his band came galloping out of the gate with “Overtime,” an energy that would return for stomps such as “Heavy Eyes.” On “The Great American Bar Scene,” title track of an album that’s due July 4, his rough-and-tumble characters were presented with a big, bouncy feel (and lyrics were repurposed with Detroit references for the occasion).
In the supersized environs of Ford Field, even the more close-quartered of Bryan’s tunes — “God Speed,” “Oklahoma City,” “Starved,” “Burn, Burn, Burn” — became anthemic, with songs like “East Side of Sorrow” taking on a Lumineers shimmer.
Bryan specializes in rugged works laced with vulnerability, in the mode of many of America’s great heartland singer-songwriters, and it shined on numbers such as “Dawns.” While some ticket buyers were surely irked by the omission of his biggest hit, 2022’s “Something in the Orange,” Bryan was happy to furnish his second-biggest one, last year’s Grammy-winning “I Remember Everything.”
The new “Pink Skies,” set for the upcoming album, was emotionally dynamic, a meditation on grief that moved from poignant to majestic. “Hey Driver” of yearning escapism that preceded the stadium-filling sizzle of “Quittin’ Time,” whose blue-collar overtones made a fitting capper for a concert in Detroit.
Bryan was the kickoff to a big summer of country music at Ford Field that will include George Strait with Chris Stapleton (July 18) and the latest visit from Kenny Chesney (Aug. 10). His own Quittin Time Tour is set to crisscross North America through December.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
