Hope you like *all caps* COUNTRY music, ’cause it’s coming straight at you hard and heavy in this playlist. And if you don’t, why the hell are you even hanging around these parts anyway?
Jamey Johnson reveals just how much new music he has saved up, including a song about him written by another big artist, his feelings on today’s country, as well as his affinity for Zach Top.
Telluride Bluegrass doesn’t just entertain revelers on a local or regional level. It works as an incubator for talent, a launching pad for stars, and the implications of what transpires both on and off the stage is often momentous.
When Top took the stage, the roar was the loudest all weekend, and perhaps one of the loudest heard in the 52-year history of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. After all, this was an arena-level artists playing a 10,000 capacity fest.
There’s just about nothing hotter in country music at the moment than Zach Top. And to meet that demand, he’s released a whole new mess of tour dates that you can be assured will be selling quickly.
Zach Top has just announced the title and release date for what will immediately become one of the most anticipated albums on 2025. To be called ‘Ain’t In It For My Health,’ it will be released on upstart label Leo33.
It remains an unfortunate aspect of the modern media landscape that whenever higher institutions broach the subject of country music, it’s commonly done by someone uniquely unqualified to speak on the matter.
Like Zach Top’s meteoric success, it symbolizes the resurgence of neotraditional country in the mainstream, and is opening up doors for other traditional country artists.
It’s just the ACM Awards. And it’s just their “New Artist of the Year” categories that are split into three separate awards. But the good guys won, and it does perhaps portend positive things for the future.
It truly is a shame that it appears we have to bid adieu to Jon Pardi as a country music traditionalist, and one that was embedded in the mainstream no less, giving him a unique opportunity to change the music for the better.
Is Zach Top really a traditional country artist? Or is he just reimagining the sounds of ’90s country? And are people forgetting that in the ’90s, traditionalists though the music was terrible?
As the rest of country music seems to be following Jon Pardi’s lead, Jon Pardi himself seems to be staying static, if not heading in the other direction ever so slightly.
Why is Morgan Wallen getting a second opportunity to play Saturday Night Live when there are so many other worthy names from the country and roots world that are still waiting for their first one?
The ACM Awards continue to spiral towards irrelevancy. That said, there are some interesting names in the nominations for the 2025 ACM Awards released Thursday.
Neotraditionalist Zach Top is the biggest new thing in country music. And he’s only getting bigger. This album is surging in the charts while he set the 2025 Rodeo Houston attendance record so far.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now in country and roots music.
Country music is going through a big revitalization of the ’90s country sound, and it’s off the backs of guys like Zach Top, as well as Texas native Jake Worthington with his 2023 self-titled album.
Up until the last few years, we had to witness a sharp and steady decline in country music across the board. Not any more. We have two dudes out there helping to completely rewrite the script.
There’s a reason Zach Top is the reigning Saving Country Music Artist of the Year, and it’s not just for his music. To achieve such an accolade, you have to be the full package, including displaying personal character.
Already opening shows for Zach Top, he’s got a similar sound to Zach, is a good guitar player as well, but it’s Cole Goodwin’s songwriting that is garnering attention, and distinguishing him from other neotraditionalist.
It’s fiddle. It’s steel guitar. It’s songs about raising hell. It’s sentimental songs about the most important things in life. Everybody’s all behind Zach Top, but Josh’s been doing 90s traditional country since the ’90s.
What started out as a joke has now blown up into a full-blown conspiracy theory that Zach Top is not only emulating the ’90s country sound of country stalwarts such as Alan Jackson, but that Alan Jackson actually sired Zach Top.
In Texas, there’s no bigger stage, and no bigger opportunity than performing during Rodeo Houston at NRG Stadium. Native Texans Parker McCollum and Cody Jinks will also be returning.
Welcome to Saving Country Music’s most comprehensive guide to music in a given year, The Essential Albums List. It includes the “Most Essential” Albums, and then other albums reviewed and deemed worthy.