Zach Bryan from Oologah to Ottawa at Cityfolk

If you haven’t yet heard of the viral sensation Zach Bryan from Oklahoma, you soon will.

26 year old Zachary Lane Bryan was the first Ottawa Cityfolk 2022 headliner on Thursday night. Festival organizers had to be happy with the turn out on the great lawn! Over the course of the evening the crowd seemed to swell to capacity in anticipation of his act and he thrilled the crowd by stepping on stage in a vintage Sens t-shirt no less.

Jake Smith, better known as The White Buffalo kick started the festival. The baritone from Oregon is no stranger to the Cityfolk stage and his loyal fans were more than happy to see him back in their city. The singer-songwriter has contributed his songwriting skills to popular shows such as Sons of Anarchy and Californication, among others. Smith is known for a wide range in pitch, and for incorporating whistling into his music, sometimes in place of the harmonica often used in roots music. He talks of God and war with a hint of Dylan and Cohen.

Next to take the stage was Ottawa darling Kathleen Edwards. Despite having lived in the city for nearly 20 years and shooting concerts for almost half of that time, I had never seen her perform live. This may have partly been due to the fact that in 2014 she stepped back from the music scene to open a coffee shop in Stittsville cheekily called Quitters. Quitters closed on March 6, 2022 after Edwards sold the business, so that she could return to her music career, and we’re thrilled to have her back on the scene! She’s played SXSW, was once described by Rolling Stone as one of year’s most promising new acts, and made her television network debut on the Late Show with David Letterman. She seemed to have returned to her element on Thursday night bantering with the crowd, discussing the ups and downs of her marriage to Colin Cripps of Blue Rodeo fame, who was on stage accompanying her, and generally having a great time. Her songs have been described as having an indefinable pull that makes you love the characters they describe, no matter how fucked up they are and she delivered them with gusto.

As the crowd volume peaked, and the lineups for beer got even longer, Zach Bryan nonchalantly sauntered onto stage. Bryan started uploading his music to YouTube in 2017, with his friends recording him perform using his iPhone. One of his songs, Heading South, eventually went viral. His debut studio album, DeAnn, was dedicated to his late mother and was released in 2019. It was written in two months and recorded with his friends in a Florida Airbnb. A second album, Elisabeth, was released in 2020. This album was recorded in a repurposed barn behind his home in Washington. If this young former active-duty member of Navy vet sounds humble and unpretentious to you so far, you got it. Despite making his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2021 and achieving Billboard’s biggest first week for a country album in 2022, he comes across as a nice kid who’s not yet quite sure why girls are asking him to sign their bodies so that they can have a tattoo of his signature inked. His sound is gritty and raw and his lyrics are heartfelt. We think Cityfolk may have introduced many of us to a real up and comer.

Cityfolk continues tonight with the unlikely pairing of JJ Wilde, Tim Hicks, and “Hard & B” OG T-Pain. You can get your tickets here.

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