Zach Bryan (feat. Maggie Rogers), 'Dawns'

In music, very few people can really be loners. Crew, champions, influences, fans, peers: These connections lift strivers beyond their own bedroom dreams and create the context in which music becomes audible. has risen rapidly in the roots/country/Americana realm, in part, by presenting himself as a relatively solitary self-made man: Standing alone in front of increasingly huge crowds, he sings his raw, red-dirt ballads in a voice that feels unfiltered. But his exercises in immediacy still reflect the work of others — including the powerful cohort of women singer-songwriters who've been refreshing the form using his favorite strategies: immediacy, vulnerability and maverick attitude.