With a diverse musical background and eight released albums, Nashville-based songcrafter Zach Berkman is an accomplished and unapologetically honest storyteller. Singing about love and loss, growth and change, his forthcoming effort, The Heart Of,  is a meditation on those expansive questions that fill all of our lives. As evidenced in the album’s 12 exquisite tracks, Berkman, like most of us, was searching for answers.

After the end of a long-term relationship, Berkman found himself in a period of personal and professional stagnation. Despite being accustomed to creating records autonomously, an old friend's suggestion led Berkman to artistically pivot and create a new sound – this time with a collective. He thoughtfully rallied his inner circle – fellow artists, writers, and creators – to bring his vision to life, resulting in the most personally and artistically fulfilling project of his career.

The name of the album is a reflection of Berkman’s past, his creative process, and the kind of art he seeks to share with the world. Growing up in Peoria, Illinois along the banks of the Illinois River, Berkman was raised in a region that calls itself “the heart of” the state. He also describes true collaboration as getting to “the heart of” or “the center of the idea” whilst incorporating various sounds, his conviction that what we create should be essence – the heart of – who we are. 

“I wrote down what it meant to fret, to hope, to shift, to change as we sit in our awkward silences, things we speak, things we omit,” Berkman reveals. “‘Tell The Truth” is about saying one thing too many, while  “Fool Me Once” is about saying one too few. ‘On The Vine’ is about arrogance and hindsight, and ‘Settle’ is about the lessons those things teach you – loss and its awful echoes, and the things that transcend loss itself. ‘Empire’ is about standing in the same place, feeling older, and calling it new,” Berkman says. “These are the issues at the heart of my concern when we made this record, these songs are me grappling with them.”

The Heart Of brims with Berkman’s heart-wrenching introspective lyricism, set against a backdrop of acoustic instrumentation. He expertly weaves a complex, yet universally relatable tapestry of emotions and experiences that invites listeners to delve deeply into ideas of connection and vulnerability. His evocative lyrics resonate with the shared struggles of the human experience, commemorate a journey through change, and offer profound reflections on growth stemming from life's challenges.

When it came time to record The Heart Of , Berkman enlisted the help of long-standing favorites: his best friend and co-producer on the project, Ron Pope, sang and played banjo and electric guitar. Justin Glasco (formerly of The Lone Bellow) played drums, percussion, piano, and organ, Rachel Ries (Her Crooked Heart, Anais Mitchell, Kith and Kin Chorus) lent her guitar, accordion, vocal, and piano skills, and Jeff Malinowski sang and played bass and acoustic guitars. The space the collective convened to record is, perhaps, the last band member. 

“In 1969, my grandparents – wanting somewhere to go in the summers, to store things, and to swim in the swimming holes – bought a piece of land in southern Michigan with a very big, very old farm house in a state of disrepair. Then, they left it that way,” Berkman remembers. The windows were cracked, the wood was weathered and splintered, and the wallpaper had peeled away. It had been beautiful, originally – decorative tiles on the hearths that contained portraits of the original owners, a coal stove here, a player-piano there, all hinted at its historical charm. Even when the attic was occupied by bats, its peculiarly high ceilings impressed Berkman. “It sounded much better than it smelled,” he laughs. When ownership passed to Berkman's father, he embarked on a mission to revive and rejuvenate the old farmhouse; eventually, the attic was insulated and adorned with pine paneling, and a piano finally found its home on the third floor. This was where the recording journey began. The group spent four days in the house, cooking and eating meals together, walking the grounds, and making the record.

What began as a soul-searching quest for answers to life’s big questions became a celebration of artistic collaboration. The Heart Of is intimate, bittersweet and introspective - a poignant study of growing up and moving on.