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How Does Zach Bryan’s No. 2 Peak for His ‘The Great American Bar Scene’ Album Match Our Expectations?

Zach Bryan's 'The Great American Bar Scene' is one of the summer's biggest debuts, but it falls short of his prior album's performance.

Jason Lipshutz: Noeline Hofmann is the first guest that appears on the Great American Bar Scene track list, on the beautiful and affecting duet “Purple Gas,” and the singer-songwriter had me feeling like the Shaq “I wasn’t familiar with your game” meme. Hofmann not only holds her own against Bryan, but her soaring tone complements the more gravelly aspects of his delivery; not only did “Purple Gas” make me want to take a deeper dive into her discography, but it also made me hope that this collaboration wouldn’t be a one-off. Andrew Unterberger: Take a lesson from The Boss: Bryan’s hero and collaborator never stayed in the same place for multiple albums, switching up his approach, his structure, his songwriting and his themes for pretty much every new record during his peak.

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