Zach Top Announces New Album “Ain’t In It For My Health”
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 August 29th on upstart label Leo33. It will be Zach’s third album overall, and his second in his resurgent ’90s country neotraditional sound, produced by Carson Chamberlain.
We don’t have many details on the album just yet. We’ll probably get many more when pre-orders commence on Friday, June 13th. But we do have the album’s debut song released late Sunday night called “Good Times & Tan Lines.” Zach Top calls it “Your new favorite summer banger,” and its reminiscent of some of the mammoth summer songs from Alan Jackson back in the day, who is definitely not Zach Top’s father (or is he?)
Zach Top was definitely able to dial in that 90’s country sound on his 2024 Cold Beer & Country Music, which has become a massive hit record despite its throwback sound, and made Zach Top one of the hottest performers in all of country music. Cold Beer regularly competes near the top of the album charts with titles from Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, and Post Malone.
Producer Carson Chamberlain is Zach Top’s ace in the hole when it comes to rekindling the neotraditional country sound. Chamberlain is a Kentucky native that played steel guitar and was the bandleader for Keith Whitley all the way up to Whitley’s death in 1989. Carson was also the tour manager for Alan Jackson and Clint Black. Chamberlain quite literally helped craft the ’90s country sound back in the day.
Carson Chamberlain also co-writes many of Zach Top’s songs, including “Good Times & Tan Lines” that also includes Wyatt McCubbin in the song credits. The song’s spirit and specifically the melody evoke memories of Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee,” which is probably no accident. Though there is definitely leeway given for simple and fun summer songs in country—and for lead singles that might interface with country radio—you do hope the new album includes some songs that go a little deeper.
One of the knocks on Zach Top has been that his songs rarely scratch beneath the surface. Tweak some of the country production and “Good Times & Tan Lines” could be a Luke Bryan song. There are definitely some exceptions in Zach’s catalog like fan favorite “Use Me.” But for Top to sustain his momentum, he’s going to have to not just emulate the ’90s. He’s needs to contribute songs and sounds original to himself, however ’90s-inspired they might be.
Zach Top’s popularity definitely speaks to the swelling appetite for country music that sounds country, in both old and very young listeners. Hopefully, Ain’t In It For My Health continues to stoke that appetite that makes for such a better alternative to so much of the country mainstream.
More info on the new album when it becomes available.
June 9, 2025 @ 8:18 am
I’d have to think Beer For Breakfast would make the album. A single that released but never on an album.
You say 3rd album, but his first release was an EP. I know…getting technical here.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:39 am
Justa Jonesin is another song that needs an album.
June 9, 2025 @ 3:01 pm
Song has Alan Jackson’s finger prints on it, which is a good thing!!!!
June 9, 2025 @ 8:39 am
This is ’90s country to its core. Call it neo-traditionalist, not traditionalist. There’s too much going on in the production for it to be compared to the country music of previous decades, especially prior to 1970. Still, it’s a fun single, and if past performance of Nashville and country radio is any indication, there will be plenty of more interesting material on the album that will never get airplay.
Speaking of fun, I’m hoping to see a rare 9.0 or higher for the new Hailey Whitters album from you. I’m hog wild over it!
June 9, 2025 @ 8:51 am
Looking forward to the album and agree with your sentiment of the article and released song. Just think your being too nice. The name alone screams “Bro-Country”. I gave it a listen and didn’t enjoy it. I’m optimistic there will be a few good songs on the album though.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:33 am
Well, comparing it to a Luke Bryan song is a pretty tough assessment if you ask me.
I get it. It’s the start of the summer and he’s releasing a summer song. Not going to lambast the kid. But not going to lie and say it’s Guy Clark level either. I’m on record saying Zach Top needs to up his songwriting game.
June 9, 2025 @ 10:13 am
I definitely agree with BP’s assessment. I thought it was disappointing to say the least. I was hoping for a big step forward in the songwriting category. Zach Top is a gifted singer and a helluva guitar player and a more serious set of songs would go a long way to cementing his legacy. I’m thinking in terms of a couple of Randy Travis compositions – “Reasons l Cheat” and “l Told You So” off his first couple albums. Granted, neither of those songs probably helped Travis’ legacy with the greater public, but they showed a guy who could write a deeply serious adult lyric. Maybe the full track list will prove me wrong.
June 9, 2025 @ 12:13 pm
I think most of these heavily promoted single release songs are done with the hopes of it becoming viral on TikTok where people will do their little dances and lyric miming to it. It’s the modern version of specifically making a song people can line dance to, however it’s really sad to think about how this would have been viewed in the 90’s putting out a single in hopes teenagers and 45 yr olds with beauty filter apps over their faces recording themselves dancing along to it on social media.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:00 am
Can’t wait! He’s like a mix of young Alan Jackson, but with the guitar skills of Brad Paisley
June 9, 2025 @ 9:11 am
title stolen from Levon. I wonder the connection?
June 9, 2025 @ 9:35 am
Let’s be patient for a little more info here. For all we know he tributes Levon on the album.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:53 am
i’d be floored by that since he shows little to no influence from him but we’ll see
June 9, 2025 @ 9:47 am
It evokes memories of Chatahoochie by directly stealing the last half of the famous Brent Mason lick and half stealing the melody from Chatahoochie in sections of this song.
How can we be against Jelly Roll and others directly jacking the melody of Country Roads and Drift Away yet give Zack Top a pass because he’s Country Music’s darling right now? Jacking the melody of another song is as shallow as “list songs.” Zack has decent songs like ‘I Never Lie’ but a summer beach song is almost always gonna be a dissapointment because they are by nature shallow and unimaginative – this one is even worse than that.
June 9, 2025 @ 10:11 am
Not sure it’s fair to compare this to songs that straight up filch the melody or chorus from established songs to where the original artist/writers have to be credited. I agree that the way the melody works is indicative of “Chattahoochee,” and I’m sure that’s on purpose.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m definitely not giving him a pass here. It’s a shallow, formulaic summer song. It’s also the first song on the album they’re trying to push to radio. I hope the album has better songs. But if it doesn’t, I’ll be the first to call it out.
June 9, 2025 @ 11:00 am
The overall product is better than the interpolations done with Drift Away and Country Roads but the “theft” aspect is worse imo because it does objectively steal sections of Chattahoochee without giving writing credits and the “theft” was done to a point where they didn’t feel it would be noticed or have to admit to doing it in the first place. It’s 10x more blatant than Laney’s song stealing from Strawberry Wine. I wouldn’t rank this song as a stinker like Lonely Road, but it’s below ‘Damn Strait’ by Scotty Mcreery.
June 9, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
Strait,
For releasing “Good Times & Tan Lines,” I hope that Zach Top gets Gonorrhea and dies alone in a bunker. Is that a harsh enough take?
I mean, I devoted two paragraphs of an album announcement on how the song was shallow and Zach Top needs to up his songwriting game.
In April I did a whole deep dive into Zach Top, including his direct connections to Brent Mason.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/understanding-zach-top-and-neotraditionalist-country-music/
Brent arranges and plays these guitar parts in the studio. When Zach Top plays live, he’s playing a Brent Mason signature guitar. As Hood says below, this is Brent Mason ripping off Brent Mason at the worst. I agree the melodies are similar, but I think that was intentional, not trying to be deceptive. Carson Chamberlain worked with Alan Jackson. Zach Top was just on tour with Jackson.
June 9, 2025 @ 12:43 pm
And he can take Parker Mccollum along with him to that bunker if he wants.
(Jk those were your words not mine)
June 10, 2025 @ 8:16 am
Quote; “I hope that Zach Top gets Gonorrhea and dies alone in a bunker.”
Heh!
Channeling your inner Robert Christgau, Trigger?
Thinking about it, maybe we could need a directness like that these days?
June 9, 2025 @ 2:46 pm
Strait,
Correct me if I’m wrong but are you a musician?
The average listener doesn’t have the ears of a musician and won’t notice what you’re dissecting with this song.
Additionally, Chattahoochie is now thirty-two years old. Most, if not all, of the target audience hasn’t even heard of Chattahoochie.
June 9, 2025 @ 2:50 pm
I am a musician. All of his target audience is aware of Chattahoochie. I can’t imagine anyone who is a fan of Zach Top that hasn’t heard Chattahoochie.
June 9, 2025 @ 5:39 pm
Chattahoochie is a “power gold”at most mainstream country stations, right up there with Should’ve Been a Cowboy, Friends in Low Places, All My Exes Live in Texas, Forever and Ever Amen, and about a half dozen other well-known ’80s and ’90s titles. They get played at least twice a day, for the most part, so regular listeners recognize them just as readily as they recognize all the recent Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson and Jelly Roll songs they hear during the course of the day.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:25 pm
They did the same thing with I Never Lie. The opening steel riff is almost identical to the opening riff in Patty Loveless and George Jones You Don’t Seem to Miss Me
June 10, 2025 @ 11:22 am
I listened to both multiple times before responding. Both are very similar however they are basically “stock” intros meaning almost basic in how clique the instrumentation is. The steel part of each intro is going from an open to a pedals down position at the very beggining of the intro which is the most common lick on a steel guitar especially since the steel part of the intro barely exceeds a bar and the remainder of the lick is nearly running a scale by the other instruments in each case.
June 9, 2025 @ 10:39 am
Considering Brent Mason is credited on the song, I’d say that lick is ok. It shows a little tribute to AJ and another massive summer song from hero of his that has gotten a lot of attention from comparisons. Summer songs are part of country music. Not everything has to be a seriously heartstring puller. And let’s just enjoy one that has solid pickin and steel guitar. Y’all need a couple beers and lighten up and have a Good Time (see what I did there?)
June 9, 2025 @ 12:06 pm
Brent Mason plays on countless sessions so his playing on this song is not a surprise. I am not aware that elements of a song that fall under copywright would be owned individually by the contributing members who were credited on an album aside from the artist and songwriters. If a band were to straight up steal a Led Zeppelin riff, Jimmy Page himself doesn’t own the copywright for the guitar lick seperate from the song itself and Led Zeppelin.
Legally I wonder how this was worked out to avoid copywright infringement. Maybe he got his dad’s permission to rip off his classic song but without AJ getting a songwriting credit that idea seems unlikely. It was obvious that Brent was told to play a lick that closely resembled the last part of the Chattahoochee riff.
Zach Top is obviously hot right now but he needs a new album of more substantiative songs – no matter how many fluffy Gen X’s that waddle out of Cracker Barrel saying “but he has a mustache!”
June 9, 2025 @ 3:08 pm
Jimmy Page might be the wrong artist for your comparison considering the amount of material he’s been accused of lifting.
June 9, 2025 @ 5:46 pm
It’s not the Gen X’ers who are getting all swoony about Top. It’s the Gen Z and Millennials, mostly female, who get the same way about Riley Green, Luke Bryan, Bailey Zimmerman,Parker McCollum, and yes, even Zach Bryan. Young, handsome guys on the stage are driving the country music surge to a greater extent than most people here are willing to admit.
June 9, 2025 @ 6:57 pm
Zach Top is the only younger artist I routinely hear Gen X and older express excitement over.
June 10, 2025 @ 8:04 am
Well, as every “teen idol” can confess, from Frankie Valli and Rick(y) Nelson to Vanilla Ice and Justin Bieber; it’s not a blueprint for a long, lucrative career.
Like Billy Ray Cyrus, they ends up in the oldies discount bin quickly. (I ripped that off Bobby Braddock, through George Jones, to prove that I am aware of the current trends).
June 10, 2025 @ 5:45 am
His mustache isn’t much to be proud of. I had a similar one in my late teens.
June 10, 2025 @ 8:27 am
Frankie Valli a teen idol with a short career? Comparable to Vanilla Ice? Valli and the Four Seasons became legendary. Are you sure you didn’t mean to write Frankie Avalon?
June 10, 2025 @ 8:55 am
To Howard, yep, that’s correct. Avalon it is.
June 13, 2025 @ 6:43 pm
Rick(y) Nelson did end up becoming legendary as well.
June 9, 2025 @ 9:26 pm
To be honest if you got back to his last Album Cold beer and Country Music he takes a lot of melody and licks from different songs and spins them into his songs.
June 10, 2025 @ 5:52 am
One could suspect that Levi Mullen is the real producer. Mullen notoriously rips off other songs.
Zach’s albums isn’t close to sounding traditional, and not even close to “the class of ’89”. Zach’s country comes from the mid-90’s, a whiff of the dying breath before bro-country and all that crap appeared.
He’s sounding traditional to those who never once listened to traditional country, as far removed from Clint Black as Charley Pride is from Ernest Tubb.
That’s how it is.
June 10, 2025 @ 7:13 am
Sofus,
The only person calling Zach Top “traditional” country is you. He is “neotraditional” country, which yes, evoke the early and mid ’90s sound. There was a good 15-20 years between mid 90s neotraditional and Bro-Country. In between you had Kenny Chesney selling out stadiums, and Taylor Swift launching the biggest career in music. You may think it’s all pop and that’s fine. But there is a massive difference between what Zach Top is doing and Bro-Country. Anyone can hear that.
June 10, 2025 @ 7:47 am
I came of age during the neo-trad wave in the mid-80’s (Yoakam, Travis, Shelton) all the way to the debuts of Black, Brooks and Jackson in ’89. Even George Strait are considered neo-trad, according to some (Chet Flippo included).
By 1992, that trend was very much dead. Those who once played solid country, lived on semi-hit covers by the Eagles (Black), Aerosmith (Chesnutt) and countless R&B tunes. Even a good one like Alan Jackson dabbed in dubious arrangements now and then.
And that’s ok, really, to make a living it is easy to play by the Nashpop rules, I get that. Tracy Byrd, a great vocalist, seemed to split his albums 50/50 with traditional tunes and pop-catering ditties.
My point is; Zach isn’t close to neo-traditional (that span between Yoakam and Chesnutt’s debut), he belongs in the shallow pop-country of the mid/late 90’s, when Joe Diffie, Collin Raye, Reba McEntire, Pam Tillis, Vince Gill, Travis Tritt etc. ruled the CMT with oversung poppy ballads, silly novelities and wannabe AOR guitar solos accompanying infantile lyrics for 20-somethings still stuck in their teen behaviour.
Perhaps Zach Top will be someone one day when he grows up. But until he starts making music for adults, his fanbase will outgrow him. You can’t count on a long career if you focus on the carefree frat boys.
Conway Twitty focused on the housewives. That gave him five decades of hits. He sang what men couldn’t comfortably articulate. And the grown-up women loved him for that, industrial awards be damned.
June 10, 2025 @ 5:56 pm
Zach Top has the opportunity to be the top of the top in the more Country-sounding corner of Country music which is why my expectation are higher for him. I listened to some of his first album today and it has elements of neo-bluegrass from the tracks that I heard. He’s more than a competent guitar player – I just want to hear something output from him that might rival what Brad Paisley put out in the first half of the 2000’s. I think the issue is more with the people around Zach vs himself that is holding him back from making stuff that rivals what the greats put out.
June 9, 2025 @ 12:39 pm
Love this guy!
June 9, 2025 @ 1:10 pm
Not every songs has to be a deep dark foreboding Americana killjoy.
There is room for light-hearted songs. Alan Jackson put out Chattahoochee AND Where Were You.
Room for both in Top’s repertoire.
June 9, 2025 @ 2:45 pm
I don’t think anyone is saying to the contrary? But I think Triggers light criticism around Top is fair. The 90’s nostalgia ditties can only take you so far. Eventually you also need some songs that have emotional substance to them that stick with folks for years to come.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with releasing a “summer song” as the lead single off this album. But I am absolutely in the camp that thinks Top has a ton of potential, but wants to see more “depth” before going all-in.
June 10, 2025 @ 10:58 am
His brand of country is very much why I grew tired of new, mainstream country some 30 years ago.
Sure, if he can lead the listeners all the way back to Merle Haggard and earlier, nothing is better, like Haggard did with his numerous tributes and covers (Jimmie Rodgers, Emmett Miller, Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb etc. That’s how I discovered them.)
But I doubt that. They will end the journey with Alan Jackson, at best, focusing on his more shallow party numbers.
June 11, 2025 @ 12:29 pm
To his credit, Jackson does have plenty of meatier songs.
But I agree, the 90’s “cosplaying” guys like Top should look more to the 80’s which at least still had a lot of depth to the songwriting compared to the 90’s.
I do wonder how much of this is also the deterioration of songwriting from Music Row. Not a lot of Bob McDill’s to hand out “meatier” songs to up-and-coming artists. And then you combine that with the economic incentive more and more for artists like Top to at least co-write their own material rather than sourcing it from others?
No wonder the depth and songwriting quality isn’t there. A lot easier to get a producer and some session players to replicate the 90’s neo-trad sound vs. the songwriting aspect of it.
June 11, 2025 @ 3:16 pm
The art of the 2.30 – 3 minute song with something to say, be it joy, sorrow or both, seems dead to me.
There are no Cold, Cold Heart or I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am around, neither any Ballad of 40 Dollar or When I Loved Her.
The truly great songs disappeared around 1990, in every genre, not just country.
I would be happy for just another Careless Whisper.
These days we get a 10 person co-write about nothing at all, lasting 6 minutes or more.
June 10, 2025 @ 5:52 am
Agreed.
Too many funeral dirges.
June 9, 2025 @ 1:48 pm
Maybe he is just wanting to have fun and release tunes that make folks happy. If so, have at it. I think that is great. I am not sure if he has been out there claiming to be the next Kristofferson, but I think it is totally fair for Trig to offer the opinion as it pertains to an artist that is exploding in terms of saving country.
June 9, 2025 @ 4:02 pm
Personally dont like this one. Pretty much stealing from aj with this. He has some good ones, i hope the rest of the album has less thievery and some better songs.
June 9, 2025 @ 4:31 pm
He’s 26 and smokes dope at frat parties. Stop looking for some deep introspective songs and just enjoy the stuff he does release.
June 10, 2025 @ 5:40 am
Many artists put out incredibly deep songs in their early 20’s.
June 11, 2025 @ 3:37 pm
Randy Travis wrote Reasons to Cheat back in ’82, when he was 23 years old, George Michael wrote Careless Whisper at 20, Kate Bush wrote a full album’s worth of songs before she turned 20, quite a few of them are excellent, lyric-wise.
And many, many others (Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman, Hank jr. Hank Sr, Jimmie Rodgers, Rod Stewart, Chuck Berry, Ronnie Lane and counting)
Maybe the problem is that the young fellas these days simply grows up a lot later than we used to do? Not to mention the lifestyle. Exactly how much life experience do you get when you spend the better part of your first 30 years playing computer games, watching TikTok videos and on top of that, works from home through a computer?
June 9, 2025 @ 5:00 pm
Immediately thought of Levon Helm (RIP) too when I read the title.
June 9, 2025 @ 6:37 pm
I definitely was hearing “Chatahoochie” even before he started singing. And the vocal also brought to mind Daryle Singletary having “Too Much Fun.”
There might be a homage, too to Alan Jackson’s last platinum album and smash it single “Good Time.”
I’m not suggesting copyright infringement. There are thousands of songs published every year and everything’s going to have elements that resemble things done before. But t”Good Times/ Tan Lines” just seems derivative and formulaic. I’m completely new to Zach Top, and– based on all the buzz–I’m figuring that some of his other songs will stirke me as better and more substantial
June 9, 2025 @ 7:44 pm
I personally love Zach Top’s new song. I definitely think it’s sound is Alan Jackson inspired but in my opinion that makes it even more fun to listen to. I’m just so happy to finally see the country artist putting out real authentic country music I hope he continues to stay popular because in my opinion, he’s the main one saving country music right now.
June 9, 2025 @ 8:46 pm
“Zach Top was definitely able to dial in that 90’s country sound on his 2024 Cold Beer & Country Music, which has become a massive hit record despite its throwback sound”
It was BECAUSE of that throwback sound, not despite it. that’s real country music right there.
June 10, 2025 @ 8:07 am
It’s a good song. Production matters. I’d consider listening to Morgan, Luke Bryan,& others, if the steel & fiddles were there. Not everything has to be so Isbell deep to be meaningful.( “The Song Remembers When.”
) I’m just over the R&B/Hip Hop/ Rock vibes in my country.
June 11, 2025 @ 4:05 am
I think it’s safe to say that country music fans in general want to hear a beat played by a live human being, not generated on a computer. The issues with modern country are that the lyrics are so poor and there’s no melody to carry them to the chorus, so they rely on something manufactured instead of created. It’s sad as hell.
It also doesn’t help that when artists try to do something more creative and with more depth, they sometimes get rejected. Hard. The newest Sam Hunt single (Country House or some other name like that) is a complete reversion to form after there was some depth to certain songs on South Side (and I would even argue some of the poppier songs were more well-done than on his debut record). He followed that with a few more solid songs, including perhaps the best of his career (Women in My Life), but they went nowhere, and now he’s back to drivel.
We need to do a better job of not rejecting better from artists who are trying, sometimes.
June 10, 2025 @ 10:42 am
I’ll be honest, I don’t need much more depth from him on average. I need the sound more than I need the substance. I hope he digs deeper, but songs “Dirt Turns to Gold” and “Cowboys Like Me Do” added nice touch to Cold Beer and Country Music. If his albums have songs like that along with 1 or 2 deeper tunes like “I Never Lie” or “Use Me,” I’m okay with the status quo.
June 10, 2025 @ 12:03 pm
Stick with me on this point:
Light-hearted and traditional can work together. Chattahoochee is the example given here. Clay Walker did a song about loving a girl on days that end in Y. Turnpike did a song about asking a girl to give the time of day. I honestly think it’s just a matter of instrumentation. As long as the traditional country instrumentation is there without a bunch of trap beats and rap-sounding lyrics, I’m open to it.
Alabama is probably the biggest country band of all time, and they made half their career on what would now be considered bro-country lyrics. But the instrumentation was there.
June 11, 2025 @ 10:57 am
Sometimes a fun song is just a fun song, even if it’s really derivative. Cut the guy some slack.