Zach Bryan has an album on the way, and seemingly, a new lady in his life.
Rumors have been swirling for a couple weeks now that he’s dating Barstool podcaster and personality Brianna Chickenfry (Bri LaPaglia), who co-hosts a podcast called PlanBri Uncut with Grace O’Malley.
A TikTok went viral of them hanging out with a large group of people sometime recently, and fans somehow spotted her in the background and came to the conclusion they were an item:
@bffspod The Zach Bryan rumors are yet another instance of @Brianna and @Josh Richards hiding secrets from @Dave Portnoy ♬ original sound – BFFs Pod
And while that seems like a huge stretch to me, she also previously joined him on stage to sing “Revival,” which fueled the rumors.
@meggyraee @Brianna you amaze me #fyp #burnburnburntour #foresthillsny #nyc #zachbryan #revival ♬ original sound – meg
They both attended the ACM Awards in May, where they first met, and Zach took home the trophy for ACM New Male Artist of the Year too.
And today on her podcast episode titled The Cat’s Out of the Bag, Bri addressed the rumors, saying she’s been “hanging out with a guy named Zach Bryan”:
“I think I might have some stuff to address… I’ve been hanging out with a guy named Zach Bryan. Just gonna go ahead and say it, just hangin’ out with a guy named Zach.
Started hanging out with a guy named Zach, what, three weeks ago?
It’s fun, it’s casual, and yeah, just wanted to address it because the whole internet is freaking the f*ck out and people are doing sh*t. And yeah, that’s really it, just hangin’ out, having some fun.”
There ya have it, folks.
She also explained that she wanted to put it out there because rumors have been swirling all over the internet, saying that she’s been “having fun” and it’s what she’ll be “doing for a little bit”:
“I’ve been on the podcast lying, not lying, but like, but not talking about where I was or making stories up and then we’d caught and sh*t, and then we’d have to cut stuff. And that is so opposite of what we do.
It’s the one thing I just wanted for me, and it just sucks with the internet, how they speculate and shit with timelines and stuff. It’s just stupid, so I figured I would just say it before the whole internet gets to say who I am and what I’m doing, you know?
It’s just like, I have the people in my life that I care about, they know what I’m going, they know they timeline of things, why should I even care about the people on the internet that just make sh*t up?
It’s just stupid, but we’re just hangin’ out, having fun, and that’s where I’ve been, that’s what I’ve been doing, that’s what I’m gonna be doing for a little bit. We’ll see where it goes, and I’m happy.”
Her co-host and best friend Grace says she’s never seen her happier, and while explaining how happy she was for her friend, you can see Bri look at someone off-camera and smile, to which Grace obviously asks if it’s Zach.
Bri played it coy, smiling and saying:
“Uh, no, no way… No way, man.”
You can watch more about it here:
She previously shared a vlog of her time at the ACM’s titled “Meeting Zach Bryan at the American Country Music Awards”:
Zach Bryan Confirms New Album Will Be Released In August
THE COUNTDOWN IS ON.
(Insert silent scream of excitement.)
Zach Bryan has been keeping his fans on their toes, dangling the promise of new music being on the horizon. Well, the horizon is a lot closer than he made it appear.
The artist took to TikTok today, playing a clip of him strumming a guitar with the caption:
“Montana bound baby! Albums in August!”
@zachlanebryanMontana bound baby! Albums in August!♬ original sound – Zach Bryan
The song that Bryan sings in the video appears to be a new one, hopefully appearing on the album.
The short snippet of lyrics depicts a tale of a person wishing they could change the roots they came from. But, no matter what he does, he will always be “the Oklahoman son.”
Could the Oklahoma native be referring to himself in the song?
Regardless of the song’s meaning, the excitement in the comments is surrounding the album potentially titled Writers & Fighters.
And there are also some strategic moves from Bryan picking and choosing what platforms to share this news on. He chose TikTok to insert that captions while sharing the same video to Instagram with a line from the song.
Clearly, he likes to let news slowly burn instead of putting gas on an already blazing fire.
There was also quite a bit of noise in the comments regarding the language he used of “albums” versus saying “album’s” or “album is.”
Does Zach mean we are getting multiple album releases in the same month, or was he meaning just simply the album is coming in August?
“ALBUM(S)?!”
“Albums…”
“PLURAL?!”
My guess is we’re just getting one and ZB wasn’t too concerned about the apostrophe, but anything is possible with the hardest working man in the business.
Buckle up, kids… I think this one is going to be killer.
The Meaning Of “Something In The Orange”
Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” ultimately became his first charting single at country radio.
And while it’s expected to become recurrent soon, if not this week (essentially meaning it’s no longer climbing the charts weekly at radio), with a peak at #23 on the Mediabase chart and #20 on the mainstream Billboard Top 40 chart, it has far exceeded anyone’s expectations as there was no initial first push to even get it on the radio.
Mediabase is one of two charts labels use to officially track their songs performance, along with the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart, and his song started charting organically at stations across the country because it became such a fast fan-favorite.
Of course, it was included on his massive major label debut studio album, the 34-song American Heartbreak album last year, and was also certified 4x Platinum in June.
And while the beautiful songwriting and meaningful lyrics on the Zach solo-write immediately caught my attention when he first teased it late in 2021, Zach said in an interview with Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen a while back that there’s not really any deep meaning behind it.
He added that so many people think it was over some “deep, dark thing” that maybe happened in his personal life, but he really just got the idea randomly while staying at a cabin in Wisconsin:
“‘Something In the Orange’ was a weird song because everyone thinks it was over some deep, dark thing. And it was just me in a cabin in Wisconsin.
And I was like, I thought about the word orange, and I was watching the sunset, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool story to tell in a song,’ you know?”
There ya have it, folks…
Of course, regardless of the story behind it or how it came to be, the single (along with the aforementioned album) has certainly pushed Zach into the forefront of mainstream country, whether he loves it or not, and he even took home his first major award this year when he won the ACM trophy for New Male Artist of the Year in May.
And if you’re as excited for new Zach Bryan music as I am, you’re in luck, because he recently start teasing that new music is on the way soon, saying on Twitter a few days ago that the album is officially done and he self-produced it for the first time, which will add a neat layer to the listening experience for sure.
There’s no set in stone release date or anything that detailed quite yet, but hopefully we’ll get some sort of project at some point this year.
And if you want to learn a little more about it, you can check out the video of yours truly below and head to our TikTok page for tons more like it:
@whiskeyriff Behind the song: “Something In The Orange” by Zach Bryan 🎶 // Head over to WhiskeyRiff.com to check out the full article! #whiskeyriff #zachbryan #somethingintheorange #countrymusic ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
“Something in the Orange”
