Zach Bryan: “[Tyler] Childers is Ten Fold the Musician I Am”

Random Notes 19 Comments

Ever since the very beginning of the Zach Bryan phenomenon about two years ago when the full-time Navy enlistee turned a couple of viral videos and then a homespun recording project called DeAnn into a viral songwriting phenomenon, the loudest criticism of this young man has been that he’s just too similar to Tyler Childers to be considered unique, or even genuine in some people’s minds.

At first it made for worthy and interesting discussion points, but as time has dragged on the argument has become quite derivative, and is probably unfair to both artists who to a trained ear, are fundamentally different in style and approach, despite some stylistic surface similarities.

Well on Tuesday (7-27), Zach Bryan shut down one of his own fans who was coming to the defense of him over the “too much like Tyler Childers” allegations, and hopefully shut down the side-by-side comparisons for good.

“Zach Bryan is better than Tyler, some of you guys are in denial. Tyler does nothing better than Zach,” the fan said on Twitter.

Zach Bryan responded, “Childers is ten fold the musician I am and I will never say otherwise. I can’t express it enough that music is not for comparing, its just stories and people trying to sing what their hearts feel. I’m barely even a musician and my pet peeve is the constant comparison of everything.”

Early on when Zach Bryan was blowing up, Saving Country Music asked him specifically about the Tyler Childers criticism and comparisons. “I say thank you, because that’s what my life’s been about, and that songwriting has gotten me through my hardest stories … This was not a plan of mine. Music was not on my radar. But the fact that people are criticizing me makes me feel lucky, that people care enough to criticize. That’s neat. I never thought I would be in a place where enough people had heard my music to criticize it. I feel blessed about that.”

Zach Bryan also went on to point out that most of the songs from his debut album DeAnn were written five years previous after the death of his mother, and before barely anyone knew of Tyler Childers.

Meanwhile Zach Bryan is getting ready to play a rare performance at the Born & Raised Fest, actually a couple of them both September 17th as part of the pre-party, and then on September 19th on the same night Cody Jinks headlines. As far as new music, Zach recently said, “Keep the patience up guys, trying to make this one count.”

The comparisons will likely continue, but Zach Bryan continues to take the right stance and the right candor to the comparisons and criticism, giving all deference to Tyler Childers, while also underscoring that his music is his own story set to song, and nobody else’s, for better or worse.

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