The new version is here. Late last night, Zach Bryan released the updated rendition of his song “Memphis; The Blues” with his friend and band member J.R. Carroll, following the public beef with fellow artist John Moreland. The song was originally including on Zach’s 2024 The Great American Bar Scene album, though it has since been removed from streaming services. You can still find a few random YouTube videos of it here and there, but J.R. is an extremely talented artist himself, and considering that he’ll be with Zach on the road all the time, it makes sense to feature him so they can sing it together. Zach shared the news on Instagram, and thanked J.R. for joining him on it saying they tried to get it done as quickly as possible because “a promise is a promise”: “‘Memphis; The Blues’ is back out with J.R. Carroll. Promise is a promise. Honored to have done this with one of my best friends in the world. Catch us belting this in Europe and across the states all summer. Thank you brother and we love you guys.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) If you somehow missed the aforementioned beef between Zach and Moreland, it occurred in May after Zach sold his publishing catalog for a whopping $350 million and signed with Warner Records for at least two more albums. After the deal was announced, John took a shot at him on social media, seemingly out of nowhere. Moreland called him an “off-brand version of me,” among other things: “$350 M is a lot of money to pay for the f***** off-brand version of me. Y‘all have a great day” Well damn! Tell us how you really feel, John Moreland pic.twitter.com/rzZOQDWf71 — Prairie Playlist (@PrairiePlaylist) May 7, 2025 Zach made it clear that it wasn’t just a friendly jab when he took to his own Instagram to address the comments from Moreland, confirming that he was blindsided and announcing that he would be removing the collab with Moreland from his album: “yooo just saw this from an artist I’ve always respected and supported. Not trying to be dramatic but refuse to have anyone with a problem with me on my records. Replacing Memphis the Blues. If it goes down for a bit just know this is the reason! No hard feelings! Confused as s**t, Tulsans look out for Tulsans!” He then followed it up with one last comment: “Last thing I say on it! Not partial to arguing with butt hurt grown men”   Moreland then explained why he wasn’t a Zach Bryan fan anymore, and revealed that he hadn’t met Zach yet when he was asked to be on the album: “Just a really big artist from where I’m from asking me to be on a record, cool.” Moreland says that he didn’t have the greatest impression of Zach after their first meeting, but says at that point it was “no big deal.” Afterwards though, he hung out with him a few more times, and…well, I’ll let Moreland explain it from here: “At this point I’ve hung out with him five, six times. I don’t like this motherf*****. Am I supposed to be upset? If I was asked to be on the album today I wouldn’t do it. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who is a d***head to my wife and my friends right in front of me every time I see him. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who I’ve heard tell borderline racist jokes more than once. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who brings a 19-year old girl in the bar, and then when they tell him she can’t be in there, looks at me like I’m supposed to have his f***** back. I don’t like that person. That’s who thinks I’m an a**hole? Fine. As far as I’m concerned, getting kicked off a Zach Bryan album is way f****** cooler than being on a Zach Bryan album.” And look, it’s fine if you don’t like Zach Bryan, but it wasn’t exactly the most damning of explanations. Borderline racist? What does that even mean? He brought an underage friend to a bar like we all haven’t tried to sneak a friend in (or ourselves) at one time or another? Zach certainly has his fair share of haters, mostly thanks to his ex, Brianna Chickenfry, but I just expected Moreland’s response to have a little more meat on the bone, you know? John probably had a really good opportunity to garner some much-deserved exposure, but hey, it’s his prerogative to torpedo that. The song was Moreland’s highest-streamed song on Spotify. Obviously, there will be some that prefer this new version, and some that will wish they could still listen to the one with Moreland, but it is what it is at this point and I don’t necessarily blame him for doing it this way considering they’re not on good terms anymore, though selfishly, I wish I could listen to both. Check out the new version and see what you think: “Memphis; The Blues (feat. J.R. Carroll)” The post Zach Bryan Re-Releases “Memphis; The Blues” With Friend & Bandmate, J.R. Carroll first appeared on Whiskey Riff.