Zach Bryan could be about to drop the biggest country album of 2022 yet.

The 26-year-old Oklahoma native released ‘American Heartbreak’ last week, a sprawling 34-song album from a major label that bowed last Friday as the country’s biggest one-day release. no longer streaming in 2022 on Spotify and Apple Music, respectively.

Bryan’s growing popularity comes as he emerged from an unlikely DIY success story that has already turned heads with one-take YouTube uploads and recorded songs with his buddies on Guitar Center gear. in an Airbnb. Now, Bryan plays sold-out shows that draw feverish fans ready to sing along with every syllable of the singer’s trademark songwriting.

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Ranging from demo-like ruminations to full-fledged heart rock anthems, “American Heartbreak” captures an untamed restlessness and blurry-eyed angst that endears Bryan — a former Navy sailor — to a largely young and passionate audience.

Of his songwriting, Bryan told The Tennessean last year, “I feel like it’s a songwriter‘s job to analyze whatever’s on his mind and show the world how he interpreted it. And maybe someone else can interpret it the same way. There’s so many things… going on around you all the time and which are so hard to explain. By writing songs, you can do your best and hope that people will relate.”

And Bryan topped at least one Billboard entry before releasing “American Heartbreak.” He landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s country songwriter chart earlier this month, fueled by lead album songs “Something In The Orange” and “From Austin.”

He celebrated the album’s release last weekend by opening for Luke Combs in Denver at Empower Field at Mile High.

“Mile High, I’ll be honest, it’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever played for,” Bryan said on Saturday as he opened a big boy Budweiser from the towering stage. “It means the world.”

He returns to Middle Tennessee next month for a June 19 performance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, about 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

List of “American Heartbreak” tracks

1. End of July
2. Something in the Z&E Orange
3. heavy eyes
4. still mine
5. happy instead
6. Right now the best
7. The suburbs
8. The early years
9. Fantastic Cold Vampires
10. Tishomingo
11. She is fine
12. You are my sun
13. Darling
14. Ninth cloud
15. Oklahoma City
16. sunshine to me
17. road boys
18. whiskey fever
19. Billy stay
20. Sober side of sorry
21. Redlights
22. The good that I will do
23. One day (Maggie)
24. Poems and closing time
25. From Austin
26. If she want a cowboy
27. Corinthians (supervisor)
28. Open the door
29. half grown
30. No remedy
31. ’68 Fastback
32. Blue
33. morning time
34. This road that I know