One of country’s most exciting young artists serves up songs for the season

Country songs celebrating the summer life are a dime a dozen, but few tackle the trials and tribulations of the season like Zach Bryan’s “Summertime Blues.” “Bet there’s some boys out in Okie that are praying to get the job done/Hauling hay and fighting off the sun,” the Oklahoma native sings, while also lamenting a lost love. Bryan’s refreshingly nuanced, unpredictable approach to country songwriting is all over Summertime Blues, as on the brooding blue-collar ode “Quittin’ Time” and the vividly rendered “Oklahoma Smokeshow.” Rounding out the project, West Virginia singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin joins Bryan on another EP standout, “Jamie.” Arriving just months after Bryan’s major-label debut, 2022’s American Heartbreak, the EP is anything but a collection of cutting-room floor outtakes, instead showing even greater range from one of country’s more exciting young artists.