It was an all-time New Music Friday this week.
Not only did we get Album of the Year contenders from Charles Wesley Godwin and Brent Cobb, but we also got two new songs from Cody Johnson, new music from Wyatt Flores, and a ton more great music.
Oh, and we got a surprise EP from Zach Bryan.
Zach is known for dropping new music at a pretty rapid clip, and he surprised fans this week with his new Boys of Faith EP, featuring duets with Noah Kahan and Bon Iver.
But of course some online were upset that he dropped the new music on the same day that his good friend Charles Wesley Godwin released his (incredible) new album, Family Ties.
Charles has opened for Zach quite a bit in the past, and the two have struck up quite the friendship – and have even recorded together, teaming up for “Jamie” from Zach’s Summertime Blues EP released in 2022.
So many thought it was odd that Zach would drop his EP this week and take attention away from his good friend.
Of course there were plenty of people who took up for Zach too, pointing out that…yes, you can actually listen to both albums.
Zach even tweeted about Family Ties shortly after it dropped.
And this morning, Zach took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to address those who were criticizing him for dropping the EP on the same day as Charles dropped his album, saying that he would have waited if he had known Charles was releasing Family Ties on the same day:
“I did not know that Charles was dropping yesterday, he is an insanely close friend of mine and we do not talk music too often believe it or not
If I would have known I would have waited you internet heroes truly know how to die for a cause and jump to conclusions yeah”
So there you have it. Zach says he didn’t realize that Charles was dropping his album this week, and that he would have waited if he had known.
I guess there’s no competition between the two after all – although Charles did have some (jokingly) harsh words for Zach when it comes to running their morning miles:
@whiskeyriff♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff