Zach Bryan, Brothers Osborne Highlight Night 1 at Stagecoach Festival

by Julian Spivey

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The 2025 Stagecoach Festival from the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. got underway on Friday, April 25. The festival, country music’s version of Coachella, is held at the same venue the week after that event wraps.

​Though Stagecoach is primarily country music-focused, non-country acts have been added over the years, with Lana Del Rey and Mumford & Sons among the night one performers this year.

Over the last couple of years, the festival has partnered with Amazon Music and Twitch to stream some of the biggest acts for those who cannot attend in person.

On Friday night, I was able to catch the Mane (yes, as in a horse’s mane) Stage performances of Zach Bryan, the Friday night headliner, and Brothers Osborne.

Bryan, one of the brightest singer-songwriters in the country genre, though not in the mainstream (both seemingly of his preference and Nashville’s ridiculous closed-door policy to those who don’t “play the game”), put on a terrific show that packed 30 songs into a two-hour set.

Bryan’s career skyrocketed in 2022 with the release of American Heartbreak, after self-producing two stripped-down DIY albums in the years preceding. The album included the hit “Something in the Orange,” which became a top-10 Billboard hit despite having virtually no significant airplay (something that wouldn’t have been possible in the pre-streaming days). The Grammy-nominated song was one of many songs performed from the 34-track album on Friday night at Stagecoach. Among the highlights performed from American Heartbreak on Friday were the rodeo song “Open the Gates,” “Oklahoma City,” “’68 Fastback” and “The Good I’ll Do.”

One of the earlier songs in Bryan’s set on Friday night was the live debut of “Blue Jean Baby,” which he released as a single in January. I’m sure we’ll see the country-rocker on a future project by Bryan, who’s prolific in his number of releases – albums or EPs.

Bryan’s self-titled 2023 release also featured several great performances on the Mane Stage, including the No. 1 hit “I Remember Everything,” which was performed late in his set with Willow Avalon’s smokey voice as a stand-in for the smoother vocals of Kacey Musgraves on the recording. “Overtime,” “Hey Driver,” and “East Side of Sorrow” were memorable performances from the album on Friday, as well.

Bryan released The Great American Bar Scene last year. He peppered a few of the tracks from that album throughout his set on Friday, including “Pink Skies,” my favorite from the album. Bryan also brought Noeline Hofmann, who had performed earlier in the day at Stagecoach, to the Mane Stage with him to perform “Purple Gas,” which she wrote.

One of the highlights of Bryan’s set was the cover of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” which he preceded by announcing, “as my favorite song of all time,” which is pretty badass. He traded off on the song's vocals with his multi-instrumentalist bandmate, Read Connolly.  

I’ll be straight up … living in the Central Time Zone and the set lasting until after 2 a.m. (the Amazon Music streams were behind the live performances), I took Bryan at his word when he wrapped his set up with the appropriate “Quittin’ Time,” and didn’t stick around for his encore of “Revival,” which I should’ve seen coming having seen Bryan in person before. He ends every show with it. 
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Earlier in the evening, Brothers Osborne took to the Mane Stage for an hour-long set of their raucous and enthusiastic country-rock.

​The duo of TJ and John Osborne has been the most successful duo in country music over the last decade and continues to put out the type of music that leads to a fun live performance.

There aren’t any slow songs in a short festival set for these brothers, with TJ commanding the stage with his vocals and John ripping on guitar.

The duo began their set on Friday night with “Might As Well Be Me,” off their self-titled 2023 album. The sound was immediately off at the Mane Stage, but luckily, this was fixed by the time the band started into their second song, “Nobody’s Nobody,” at least on the Amazon Music stream.  

Both TJ and John remarked about the wind whipping through the venue on Friday night, which may have made their sound off to the many watching live, which is unfortunate. It seemed like the brothers were battling with possible malaise from the crowd, often trying to pump them up from the stage.

Among the band’s best and biggest hits performed on Friday night were a few of my personal favorites: “Shoot Me Straight,” off 2018’s Port Saint Joe, “I’m Not for Everyone,” off 2020’s Skeletons, and the show-ending “It Ain’t My Fault,” off their 2016 debut Pawn Shop. If one were to ask me for the best of their discography and where to start to get an idea of their sound, these are the three songs I’d recommend.

Brothers Osborne peppered a few covers throughout their set, the best being “I Won’t Back Down,” the Tom Petty classic. They welcomed actress/singer Kate Hudson to the stage for a lethargic performance of the Johnny and June Carter Cash classic “Jackson,” with Hudson proving to be a disappointing duet partner. They also did a version of Bob Marley’s classic “Three Little Birds,” in a “we’re all in this together” statement, but let’s face it, we’re no longer “all in this together.” They went from “Three Little Birds” into their first big hit, “Rum,” which made for a good transition.

During their set, Brothers Osborne debuted their newest single, “Finish This Drink." This song aligns with some of their career highlights and should be a good summer jam on country radio.

The following two nights at Stagecoach Festival will include performances by Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Sturgill Simpson, Midland, Ashley McBryde, Shaboozey and more.