It’s Official: Zach Top Has Arrived

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There are a few folks with their chins high in the air these days proudly proclaiming they were on the Zach Top bandwagon well before the rest of us losers jumped on. They were spinning his 2022 self-titled bluegrass album and singing his praises while the rest of us were trundling through our little lives, blissfully unaware. Some of these people are even telling the truth. Others just want you to think they are.

But now everybody is getting on board the Zach Top train, and for good reason.

It’s not that we haven’t seen a wave of revolutionary artists in country music over the last ten years, slowly but surely steering the music back towards it roots, towards authenticity, towards an emphasis on songwriting, and an approach that’s more independent of the influence of corporate Nashville.

But if we’re being honest—whether it’s Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, or Zach Bryan—you sort of have to squint to make them the ideal specimen for this work. Their music often sits on the periphery and margins of the true heart of country, while they’ve waffled back and forth between being traditionalists to iconoclasts in the seasons of their careers.

Another issue is that despite garnering a mainstream level of success, these artists haven’t really affected the mainstream of country from the inside out. It’s been more vice versa. Meanwhile, traditionalists within the mainstream such as Jon Pardi, Midland, and Lainey Wilson may present a lot of promise of where the mainstream is headed. But again, you still have to separate the wheat from the chaff in their catalogs, and deal with “country radio sensibility” to get to any true roots or twang.

With Zach Top, he’s a bullseye. As the Austin-based honky tonk band Croy and the Boys commented on one of the multiple viral Instagram posts from last weekend’s Under The Big Sky Fest in Montana, “It’s like Saving Country Music used AI to generate the ultimate country artist.” That comment ended up going viral itself.

Another advantageous aspect of the Zach Top phenomenon is he’s quickly being accepted and championed by country performers from all across the country and roots landscape, including some who felt alienated by the success of Zach Bryan. Because unlike Zach Bryan, Zach Top is an A1 singer, and A1 guitar player, and a top notch songwriter. No offense to Zach Bryan. He admits himself that he’s an amateur musician. But Zach Top is the full package in a way that’s hard to deny or undercut.

And it’s not just Zach Top’s music, nor just his history. It’s the cut of his jib. It’s the contours of his character. It’s the full package that assures you that Zach isn’t going to go venturing off into noise rock anytime soon, or start telling off his own fans to flex his creative autonomy. There is a level of assurance that comes with the Zach Top experience that the future of country music is in good hands. You feel like your witnessing a ’90s country superstar that just emerged from a time portal.

Zach Top is not alone as a young country music traditionalist. In fact, there is a whole gaggle of them right now, including ones that are finding significant traction. Jake Worthington is another signed to a major label and receiving lots of attention through his traditional sound. In the independent realm you have performers like Jesse Daniel who are out there doing it the right way, packing out clubs, and perhaps have a brighter future as Zach Top exposes and swells an appetite for this kind of true country music.

Part of the Zach Top story that perhaps hasn’t been told enough is how Top was a big part of Joshua Hedley’s 2022 album Neon Blue. Well before everyone else started riding the ’90s country wave, the “Mayor of Lower Broadway” and Robert’s Western World mainstay released a distinctly 90’s country album, and Zach Top wrote or co-wrote five of the songs on the album.

2022 is also the year Zach Top released his self-titled album, which was 100% bluegrass. Raised on a ranch outside of Sunnyside, Washington in the rural center of the state, he started performing at the age of seven in a band with his siblings called Top String. Into his teens and early 20s, Zach kept on in bluegrass, including in the award-winning band Modern Tradition. It was through all of this success that he moved to Nashville in 2021 and was able to sign a publishing deal with Bob Doyle’s Major Bob Music.

This publishing deal allowed Zach Top to work with some of his top heroes, most notably Carson Chamberlin who produced and co-wrote every song on Zach Top’s 2024 album Cold Beer & Country Music. Carson Chamberlain is the Kentucky native that played steel guitar and was the bandleader for Keith Whitley all the way up to the country legend’s death in 1989. After that, Carson worked for Alan Jackson and Clint Black. If you want to mine ’90s country gold, go directly to the source. That’s what Zach Top and Cold Beer & Country Music did.

All of this has led to this moment in time when it feels like Zach Top is one of the hottest commodities in all of country music. He’s currently contractually obligated to continue opening shows for Lainey Wilson on her “Country’s Cool Again” tour through November playing 20 minute sets, but he’s already leagues beyond that opportunity, and is playing his own packed out headliner shows and festival slots when he can. In some respects though, it’s good they’re making Zach Top pay dues. It will help put a strong foundation beneath his career.

Zach Top is getting so big, it’s about time for the hipsters to start coming out of the woodwork to tell the rest of us how much he sucks, while some naysayers were already claiming he was simply another cosplay cowboy in empty boots. But at Under The Big Sky Fest on Sunday, July 14th when he took the stage with Billy Strings during his headliner set to perform “Big Spike Hammer” and “Freeborn Man,” even the detractors were forced to fall in line. Seeing the reaction on the face of Billy Strings to Zach Top’s singing and playing was all the validation he could ever receive.


Meanwhile, Zach Top’s current single “Sounds Like The Radio” sits at #26 on the Country Airplay charts, meaning his impact is already being felt in the heart of the mainstream. But despite his mainstream proximity and success, he’s signed to the independent label Leo33, which Top signed to as the new label’s flagship artist. Beyond everything else, Zach Top remains independent.

Of course the next big question is where all of this goes from here. Anything having to do with Zach Top immediately explodes on social media, but he may choose to remain in this ’90s country era for a while, or he may choose to release another bluegrass album. Word on the street is he already has stacks of other songs and recordings ready to go. And his song “Use Me” might ultimately become the Song of the Year at Saving Country Music in 2024.

There is no false alarm or empty promises this time when we talk about someone rising from the ranks of artists that could significantly realign the direction of the country genre. Zach Top has arrived, and he’s taking the sound of true country music back to the top of country.


© 2025 Saving Country Music

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