El Dorado by Zach Bryan

Album: Zach Bryan (2023)

Charted: 31

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Songfacts®:

"El Dorado" is about a friend of Bryan's named Garrett Brewster, who was a US Marine. He suffered from traumatic brain injuries and PTSD and committed suicide after returning home to the US.

The song is a powerful and moving tribute to Brewster. Bryan sings about the pain of losing his friend and the struggle to cope with his death. He also sings about the hope that one day he will see Brewster again in El Dorado, the mythical city of gold.
Zach Bryan wrote and produced "El Dorado" and played acoustic guitar. The other musicians are:

Jacob Weinberg: background vocals
Noah LeGros: background vocals, electric guitar
Zephyr Avalon: bass guitar
Read Connolly: steel guitar
Steve Clark: drums
Lucas Ruge-Jones: percussion, fiddle
Zach Bryan recorded "El Dorado" for his 2023 self-titled album. Bryan is donating the profits from the song to McCaffrey's 22 And Troops foundation.

NFL star Christian McCaffrey and his wife Olivia created the foundation to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide prevention among veterans and active-duty military personnel.

The name of the foundation reflects the 22 veterans who die by suicide each day.
In the song's demo, Zach Bryan pronounced the name of the mythical town of El Dorado in the traditional way: "el-da-ra-dou." However, he changed it to the Spanish pronunciation, "el-do-rado," after learning the Kansas town of El Dorado is pronounced that way. Bryan wanted to stay true to the Spanish roots of the name and to show his respect for the people of Kansas.

Comments: 3

Dt from El Forado CountyStating a mythical town of gold is not a myth. The town of El Dorado is where they came during the gold rush and mined for gold in addition to Placerville and Coloma within El Dorado County California. I am sure there are multiple El Dorado’s but this one is not a myth. Just and fyi
AnonymousZack isn’t from Kansas
Codegirl96 from El DoradoOne correction. The ElDorado he talks about isn't the mythical city of gold. It's the city of El Dorado Kansas were Zach and Garrett grew up. Though as someone from the area i will say we do sometimes joke about it being the 'City of Black Gold' partially because it's a s--tty town and partially because the main industry is a giant oil refinery.

Zach is talking about wishing to be able to go home and see his friend there, because Garrett never made it back home

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