Zach Bryan Duets With Noeline Hofmann On ‘Purple Gas’

Zach Bryan duetted with Noeline Hofmann on her original song Purple Gas last Friday (June 7). 

A short snippet of Hofmann singing Purple Gas went viral on TikTok last year, garnering some 270,000 views. And in January, Bryan invited Hofmann on The Belting Bronco, a YouTube series where musicians play their songs live in the back of his truck. 

@noelinehofmann

Here’s a handful of lines of a new song I was working out this afternoon for a little show I’ve got at a Cowboy Poetry gathering tomorrow. It’s called “Purple Gas”… Maybe I’ll buck up and share the whole thing on here one of these days. Had an end of harvest party tonight, and will be northbound tomorrow after the gathering to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with the family/keep Jameson Whiskey in business. Hope you all eat well and laugh often this weekend. #longlive9wire #longlivetheneighbourkid #hellofamanonthefencingpliers #fargo #purplegass #songwriter #songwritersoftiktok #songwriting #countrymusic #countrysong #ranch #cowboy #cowgirl #cowboymusic #originalmusic #originalsong #folkmusic #folksong #altcountry #americana #emergingartist #songlyrics #lyrics #outlawcountry #cowgirltok #ranchlife #ryewhiskey #smithbilt #ranching #40below

♬ original sound - Noeline Hofmann

Since then, Bryan and Hofmann have been working together to record and release a duet of Purple Gas to include on Bryan’s upcoming album, The Great American Bar Scene.

Before the song dropped on Friday, Bryan took to X saying, “This song brought me to tears the first time I heard it so it was really important for me that Noeline gave me the privilege to sing it with her. I have never covered another musician on an album and it’s because I was waiting on someone to write a song like this. Noeline resonates like Gillian Welch to me and Gillian is one of my favorite musicians to ever live.”

Bryan’s words were high praise for Hofmann, who didn’t even have a song on streaming services before this. Since Purple Gas dropped, she has already accumulated 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. 

In a lengthy post on Instagram, Hofmann spoke with great respect for Bryan: “He trusts his gut with a fierceness I’m not sure I’ve witnessed in a person before. To the average onlooker this can appear like shooting from the hip but it’s apparent to me it’s so much deeper than that with how often he finds the target. It’s no wonder he is a force. To know him, witness this up close, and work together has been a gift and a lesson in letting go, beauty in imperfection, staying grounded in my truth, and just how small the world is. Zach, thank you for everything.”

She also explained the inspiration behind Purple Gas: “This song is inspired by the rural resilience I’ve witnessed in my young life, notably my experience working on a cattle ranch in Western Manitoba circa 2022. (Purple Gas is dyed fuel with a tax break for farmers and ranchers in Western Canada that you need a special license plate for to burn on public roads.) That period of time was an intense coming of age, as joyful as it could be jarring. American Heartbreak was released during the time I was working there. Those songs are woven into my memories there, and therefore woven into the song Purple Gas.”

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A post shared by Noeline Hofmann (@noelinehofmann)

Bryan is now urging fans to send in “any hometown, farmland, American centered, midwestern, western style footage” for a fan-sourced music video. “I like doing these because it makes me feel so much more connected to the people that listen to my music,” he said. You can send your video to the link here.

The release of Purple Gas comes after Bryan made his anger known about his other new single, Pink Skies, being picked up on pop radio.