The very public beef between two country music artists from Oklahoma, Zach Bryan and John Moreland, has been the talk of the country music world lately, and if you’re not familiar, I’ll give you a quick rundown.
Zach featured fellow Okie John Moreland on a song called “Memphis; The Blues” on his The Great American Bar Scene album. It’s easily one of John’s most streamed songs, but when Zach signed his $350 million deal, John publicly called him out as the “off-brand version” of himself. Zach saw that, was blindsided and vowed to rerecord the song without him and took it down off streaming platforms. John responded by simply saying that had he known Zach at the time, he would’ve never recorded it with him, and that after hanging out with him a handful of times, he can’t stand him. That prompted Drayton Farley to share his own negative experience with Zach, and of course, Zach’s ex Brianna Chickenfry, chimed in as well.
We all know Zach Bryan’s relationship drama with Brianna LaPaglia was well-documented, although it’s really important to remember that we’ve only heard one side of the story, and many of her co-workers have less than stellar things to say about her, including that she’s wildly dishonest. But based on accounts from Brianna (for what that’s worth), John, Drayton and others, it does sound like Zach can be quite a diva and a tool at times, but overall, getting cocky, maybe partying a little too hard, and “borderline racist jokes” as John alleged (whatever that means) isn’t exactly the crime of the century. Same could probably be said about a lot of celebrities. And at the same time, John seems to have garnered some of his own negative headlines more recently. He was famously involved in a fist fight with Turnpike fiddle player Kyle Nix last year, so it’s probably fair to say that there may be some other artists who don’t care for his personality either. He just doesn’t have the notoriety to warrant so much online hate.
But for starters, public arguments like this just don’t happen very often in the country music world where everyone likes to pretend the entire industry is “one big family.” You won’t believe how many artists have told me that. You also won’t believe how many artists have told me that it’s a complete lie… but even outside of the mainstream, you just don’t see it all that often. Zach Bryan has catapulted into the upper echelons of the music world, selling out stadiums around the country, and naturally, that brings about a lot more attention. Whether it’s his music, his dating life, podcast appearances, getting arrested, whatever… Zach has reached the level of fame where everything is under a microscope, and he genuinely seems like he hates that aspect of the business. But that’s kind of the trade off, right? Fame and fortune in exchange for personal privacy? And while Zach’s actions have certainly earned him his fair share of haters, and a number of them have rushed to take the side of John Moreland in this beef (as if they weren’t celebrating when the collab came out), for many of Zach’s diehard fans, they want to know… who is this John Moreland guy slandering their king?
And just as an aside… in my 10+ years of blogging, I will say that I’ve learned to not really pay much attention to the comments on social media, but perhaps the dumbest, most obnoxious, comment that I see regularly is “Who?” or even worse, “Never heard of her” when the conversation is clearly about a man. If you’re someone who regularly comments “Never heard of her” on social media, especially when you’ve absolutely heard of the person in the headline (I’ve seen this on Morgan Wallen posts), please know that is is such clown behavior. To me, it’s the single biggest tell that you’re a dumb person… that’s all I need to know. I’ll die on that hill…
Anyways, I suspect that there is sadly a large amount of people in the conversation who genuinely do not know who John Moreland is, other than he was featured on a Zach Bryan song before this whole beef started and it got removed. I also suspect that’s partly why John is so mad. I’ve seen a handful of country artists in my time… really, really good ones who never quite make it commercially, get really, really bitter about it. Seems like John might be in that camp these days, but regardless, it’s a shame to see him biting the hand that feeds him right now. Say what you want about Zach, he’s done a pretty good job of elevating artists around him… John might’ve had an opportunity to take it to the next level. But if he doesn’t like him, he doesn’t like him…what can you do?
All that said, let’s learn a little about John Moreland, eh?
Early Years
John Moreland was born in Texas and moved around a bit as a child before his family planted roots in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area when he was 10. Shortly thereafter, he started playing music, and by high school, was playing in punk and metal bands. In the early 2000s, he discovered the music of Gillian Welch, Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt, and the rest was history… John pivoted the metal sound into a more traditional red dirt rock sound with his first two bands (The Dust Bowl Souls and the Black Gold Band), and by 2011, he had released his first solo album, Earthbound Blues.
He followed that up with In The Throes in 2013 and then High On Tulsa Heat in 2015, and as John continued to hone his craft, the guitars got cleaner, and the songwriting got more compelling, more introspective…. more gut-wrenching as John worked to try and untangle thoughts on some of life’s deepest questions. John’s music became a pillar of authenticity and vulnerability when country music was arguably at its worst. Both albums garnered some critical acclaim and John found himself earning praise from the likes of Miranda Lambert, and opening up for Jason Isbell.
High On Tulsa Heat brought us the gut-wrenching “You Don’t Care For Me Enough To Cry,” just a slug to the chest kind of song about a devastating breakup, and how much it hurts when you’re still clinging to the grief and they’ve already moved on. Is hate the opposite of love, or is it just not caring anymore? One could argue the latter hurts more.
And then, “Break My Heart Sweetly,” off his 2013 In The Throes album. John refers to it as “bummer stuff,” in the intro to this video, but we’re talking about beautifully-written, yet terribly sad anthem of unrequited love. There’s something so painful about loving someone and knowing there is zero chance that it will ever be returned. Sometimes the best you can hope for is just to be let down easy.
It was actually featured in the hit Paramount series, Yellowstone.
Big Bad Luv and Beyond
In 2017, he released Big Bad Luv, and once again, John proved that he could empty out his veins on the page and captivate listeners with complex storytelling, unapologetic vulnerability and gut-wrenching tales of sadness and regret.
“Lies I Chose To Believe” is powerful tune about coming out of the sadness and the loneliness, and realizing that you don’t have to dwell in and pain and suffering to create good art. And while “tortured artist” trope is common one, and oftentimes one that produces great work, nobody should stay in the cycle of perpetual heartache.
In 2020 John returned with LP5, which added an extra layer of production that we weren’t used to hearing from John. His songwriting is always the main character, instrumentation is just the supporting cast, and that was still the case on LP5, but you could detect a little extra tinkering in the studio so to speak. But 2022’s Birds In The Ceiling is where John doubled down on production and it went a little off the rails. This album found John diving into a lot of electronic sounds, and while the songwriting quality was there, many longtime Moreland fans weren’t exactly a fan of the departure from his conventional folk rock sound. Personally, I didn’t mind it as much as some others did… I remember a few nights wandering around the streets of Chicago (on the heels of COVID, it was really quiet there) and spinning this one in the headphones. It was cathartic.
But most recently, John returned to his bread and butter on Visitor, where he dove headfirst into the tensions of living in our hyper political, deeply divided, post-Covid United States of America. John even confessed that he stopped using a smartphone for 6 months while he wrote this album, and even recorded it in his living room. The result was a thought-provoking critique of a broken society, the digital chains we collectively seem to be shackled in, and navigating one’s own sense of self in this constantly changing world.
“Gentle Violence” confronts the problems that politics bring into relationships that would otherwise carrying on in peace. Family memebers, lovers, good friends… it’s no secret that politics has driven a wedge between some close relationships in the past decade, and John illustrates how that is a microcosm for our larger society. One that we probably shouldn’t accept so easily.
Of course, that’s just a brief rundown of one of country and folk music’s most prolific songwriters, and I’d urge you to dig in deep… ESPECIALLY if you’re a Zach Bryan fan wondering who the hell he even is. And here’s why…
At the end of the day, music is about connection… it’s why Zach Bryan has become one of the biggest artists in the world. His songwriting connects with fans on such a deep and meaningful level, reaching down and striking a nerve in the deepest corners of their souls. It’s why he can sell out a 100,000 person stadium. And that’s exactly what John does, and perhaps in an even more profound way. He just hasn’t managed to catch the attention of the masses like Zach has. But he has caught the attention of the music industry and the songwriting community. I don’t remember where I heard this example, but when I think of John Moreland, the sentence “he’s your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter,” immediately comes to mind. Like I said, I don’t know where that originated, but it’s a phrase that is commonly associated with John Prine as well.
So think about who your favorite songwriter is (provided that they’re any good lol), and I’d be willing to bet that John Moreland is probably one of their favorite songwriters. And for all who people saying “who?” about John Moreland, sincerely or otherwise… he’s one of Zach Bryan’s favorite songwriters.
Well, at least he used to be…
