Zach Bryan Makes Big Appearance Performing on “Yellowstone”
Zach Bryan and the Paramount TV show Yellowstone rekindled their affinity for each other and in a big way on Sunday night, December 18th. The 7th episode of Season 5 included not one, not two, but three Zach Bryan songs via the official soundtrack, and not through a superimposed backing track, but via Zach Bryan appearing in the episode himself and performing live.
Near the end of the episode, Zach Bryan showed up as the entertainment at the county fair, singing along with his band. The songs “Motorcycle Drive-By,” “Quittin’ Time,” and “Summertime Blues” were all featured, which don’t come from Bryan’s monster 34-song album American Heartbreak that’s dominating the charts at the moment, but his 9-song EP Summertime Blues that was released on July 15th.
The timing is interesting here, since Zach Bryan was in the region this summer playing Under The Big Sky Fest on July 17th right as he was dropping his Summertime Blues EP. Perhaps he slid down to the Yellowstone production set, and taped his parts then. Lainey Wilson, who is also appearing in the Yellowstone cast this year, also appeared at the festival.
The rise of the popularity of Yellowstone and Zach Bryan have sort of paralleled each other, and Yellowstone previously had worked with Zach Bryan to help give him a leg up. Ahead of Season 4 of the series, Yellowstone music supervisor Andrea von Foerster wanted to feature some of Zach Bryan’s songs, but was worried the homespun nature of his recordings wouldn’t work for what they were looking for.
“I asked Zach if I could pair him with a colleague of mine, Dave Cobb,” Andrea Van Foerster said at the time. “His management got him to Nashville, he recorded with Dave Cobb, and we used ‘Condemned’ at the end of one of our episodes.”
Here in season 5, Zach Bryan had already been featured numerous times, including his song “Whiskey Fever” in Episode 1, and “The Good I’ll Do” in a pivotal moment in Episode 4.
Having music featured in the Yellowstone soundtrack usually results in a big boost for artists and bands. It’s even a bigger boost if you appear personally, like we’ve seen for Whiskey Myers. Flatland Cavalry and L.A. Edwards also had songs featured in Episode 7. To see all the songs featured in Yellowstone Season 5, CLICK HERE.
Zach Bryan is likely to receive some boost from the Yellowstone appearance too, but let’s be honest, he’s already one of the hottest things in country, and one of the hottest things in all of music, evidenced by the end of year numbers for 2022.
Nonetheless, Episode 7 of Season 5 gave many Yellowstone fans a cool moment of their two worlds of television and music colliding once again, and one that will probably benefit both entities in the long run as two of the most popular things going in entertainment.
December 18, 2022 @ 8:25 pm
Pittsburgh’s own Read Connolly playing the banjo on stage with Bryan in this episode, too. Bryan “borrows” Connolly from Charles Godwin’s The Allegheny High backing band and we are so proud of him around these parts.
December 20, 2022 @ 1:23 pm
Saw CWG in Madison, Indiana and Lexington, KY this past weekend, and Connolly really showed is talent. His intereactions with the other band members were seamless and priceless. A true gem.
December 20, 2022 @ 5:07 pm
That’s awesome. There’s a monthly Honky-Tonk Jukebox concert in Pittsburgh hosted by Jon Bindley of Bindley Hardware Co. (a local group) and Connolly used to be part of it. If he ever shows up again, I’ll show him your comment.
December 18, 2022 @ 8:58 pm
Do you have any information on Bad Flamingo? They seem to make a lot of music for the show and nobody is talking about them. All of their music has been great. Seems like they’re trying to be anonymous. Feel like i hear Amanda shires’ voice on a few
December 19, 2022 @ 5:37 am
Good for Zach. Definitely tapping into a new market of wine moms and boyfriends who don’t really like Yellowstone but just want to get laid. Yellowstone’s writing is so bad it makes Zach Bryan sound like Dylan and Prine.
December 19, 2022 @ 9:45 am
Amen! Glad someone will say it. I don’t care how popular this show is it’s god awful now. I’ve watched since the beginning and even watched the first spinoff. Yellowstone is objectively just awful writing, running in circles plot wise and lost me this season. I can’t bear to watch another episode. This show could have been condensed down into about a 2-3 season arc and been done but they gotta beat all the money out of it as they can.
December 19, 2022 @ 10:25 am
It’s an evening soap opera.
December 19, 2022 @ 3:05 pm
What is the hubbub with Rich O’Toole saying Zach has taken or used some of his music? The post he made seemed to imply that “his vibe” was stolen atnthe least. Thoughts, Trigger?
December 19, 2022 @ 3:40 pm
O’Toole said that Zach’s “Motorcycle Drive By” played on Yellowstone last night was similar to his “Take My Heart.” I hate these things. Music often sounds like other music. To prove someone straight up ripped off someone else off takes a ton of evidence. It does happen, but it’s extremely rare. To me, they both sound like Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart.” I’m waiting for her to enter the chat.
December 19, 2022 @ 7:00 pm
WhiskeyRiff website has more detail on the matter of Zach and O’Toole.
I do not know enough to have an opinion one way or another.
December 20, 2022 @ 10:35 am
Said it elsewhere and will say it here:
I got a huge laugh out of Rich O’Toole being accused of trying to ride Zach Bryan’s coattails, partly because that’s exactly how it looks, but mostly because O’Toole’s been in this business for more than 15 years trying to make a name for himself, and here ZB is, with a song on a popular TV show barely 7 months after his major-label debut album was released.
December 19, 2022 @ 6:31 am
Can’t wait until Yellowstone features Morgan Wallen
December 19, 2022 @ 11:10 am
Di, if so you won’t read about it here unless it is a duet with Zach – ha ha, don’t shoot ne Trigger!!
December 19, 2022 @ 9:01 am
Zach Bryan=Taylor Swift
December 19, 2022 @ 11:34 am
A good songwriter who beats to their own drum? I don’t think that insult comes across like you were hoping for hoss
December 19, 2022 @ 8:48 pm
What I’m trying to say is Zach Bryan is not Country,he’s never even made anything country at all! The problem with the country genre is it’s been watered down by folks for years and anyone that writes a song with a acoustic guitar is country now? And people like him use the genre to sell themselves because people don’t listen to what country really is anymore. I can tell you this,there’s plenty of other guys a lot more talented and country that are lower on festival bills then him and they shouldn’t be. He’s a hipster that people cling to to make themselves feel like they’re listening to something they’ve never heard when you can pick anyone else and they’re doing the same damn thing. Good for him for selling himself to be so popular but I really do t get the hype.
December 20, 2022 @ 1:25 pm
Finally! Somebody putting it into the right words – Zach Bryan ain’t country! His acoustic grunge-folk may be palatable to some, but yes he’s a hipster, like Charlie Crockett. It doesn’t mean that they are utterly bad, they just ain’t country.
December 20, 2022 @ 2:13 pm
As I always say, is Zach Bryan straight-down-the-middle country? Of course not. Is he more country than anything else? Yes. A lot of his music features prominent fiddle and banjo, and sits down in the singer/songwriter tradition of Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, etc. “Acoustic grunge-folk” these days is Americana, which is a subset of country. Last year, two of the biggest acts in Americana were Counting Crows and Jakob Dylan. This is the landscape in 2022 in the implosion of rock. Zach’s music charts in country, rock, and Americana. He sent entries to country and Americana to the Grammy Awards. He straddles the line, but I would much rather him representing country than Walker Hayes, Florida Georgia Line, or lots of other stuff passed off as “country” today.
December 20, 2022 @ 7:39 pm
Didn’t Zach Bryan just post videos of himself singing online and then he caught on like wildfire? I’m not sure how that constitutes “faking being country.” If the country festivals want to invite him why should he say no?
December 19, 2022 @ 12:50 pm
I don’t understand shitting on Taylor Swift. She is Pop and her music is at the top as far as quality for mainstream pop.
December 19, 2022 @ 7:05 pm
Strait86,
It’s probably because she brought that pop crap into country and then used it as a springboard into the pop arena which she always aspired to do. I personally can’t stand her but do not begrudge her success. I don’t listen to her so I can’t work up a good poop to put on her. But dang, that girl sure knows how to market herself. Can’t deny that.
I really do not have an opinion on Zach either. I listened to a few of his songs and I guess I am missing what many others see. More power to him though.
December 19, 2022 @ 9:11 pm
“Brought that pop crap into country”
*Garth Brooks has entered the chat
December 20, 2022 @ 7:35 am
Her country music was bad but when her “sound” changed she left the genre so I can’t fault her for that. The Kacey Musgraves switch to pop is more befuddling because her country albums were great.
Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan are the antichrists of country.
December 19, 2022 @ 9:08 pm
I feel like the combination of real life mixed in with the show is starting to feel forced and excessive. Resembles more of a commercial now.
December 20, 2022 @ 3:29 pm
It’s becoming a Ram Truck commercial
December 20, 2022 @ 1:48 am
I know I am in the minority here, but I find Zach Bryan a little overrated, doesn’t suck, but not great either. It felt like the songs at the fair scene were all the same song. Good for him though striking while the iron is hot.
December 20, 2022 @ 7:43 am
Zach Bryan is still new but he’s been doing his own thing. He’s like a Jack Johnson of sorts within country. I still think ‘amateurish and fresh’ beats clique. My biggest criticism is that his lyrical content seems on par or a little below for his age. The great songwriters wrote like much older men or women.
December 20, 2022 @ 9:00 am
They should get Chayce Beckham his songs are great and have great story more country. Awesome singer, songwriter, storyteller, musician ????
December 27, 2022 @ 3:30 am
Agree. It would be great to see him.
December 20, 2022 @ 1:05 pm
Good for him. I don’t hate his music but I do find his lyrics/stories a bit young for me. And I’m only 37. Is Emo folk/Country a thing? If so, I’d put Zach in that group. But maybe with time, he will grow. I know most new young songwriters tend to lean on high school-style heartbreaks and angst etc.
Then again, Cole Chaney has a similar vibe and I think is also in his mid-twenties but his songs sound like he’s been writing for as many years as he’s been alive.