Zach Top Brings Resurgent Traditional Country to Telluride

Like so many of the country legends of the past, when Zach Top was growing up on a ranch in rural Washington State, it was bluegrass that he learned from an early age, and started performing in a family band and with other young folks in the region. It created the foundation for his understanding of the music. Zach Top’s first self-titled album from 2022 is straight bluegrass.

But it’s as a neotraditional country artist with a sound more indicative of ’90s country that has made him one of the most popular artists in all of country music, and put him on the path to an arena tour later this year. But before he becomes completely untouchable, folks still have a few opportunities to see him in smaller venues and festivals.

You definitely could tell that Zach Top was making his way to the stage at the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Festival with the way the demographics of the audience dramatically shifted ahead of Zach’s set. The Patagonia and REI crowd all of a sudden was infiltrated with Carhartt and Resistol, and a decidedly younger, teenage audience emerged. Telluride might be a hoity-toity ski resort town, but it’s still on Colorado’s Western slope where country culture is more prominent. They showed up for Zach Top.

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 festival. And don’t worry; there was no culture war that ensued in the crowd. Zach Top won over everyone with his throwback country sound that welled nostalgia for how great country music used to be in the hearts of everyone in attendance.

Zach Top displayed the virtues of true country music for the Telluride crowd, and everyone loved it. He did break out the acoustic and play a “bluegrass” set for a spell, but honestly, not in a similar manner as in some previous shows have seen. The man can rip through a version of “Freeborn Man” like nobody. But instead he played “Don’t Cheat in My Hometown” popularized by Ricky Skaggs, and recently recorded with Billy Strings for an EP.

Top also made sure to send some love to Strings after the recent passing of his mother. Just as Billy Strings is saving bluegrass and taking it to heights never seen before, so it Zach Top with traditional country. Both now have legacies that include appearances at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Road-tested time has only made Zach Top a more refined performer. He knows how to sing and put the emphasis exactly where it needs to be, and his folksy demeanor is endearing as opposed to the fake, choreographed histrionics of mainstream country. After starting off with “Sounds Like The Radio,” and a Fender jukebox beaming on the side of the stage, the beginning of Zach Top’s set included some country classics like “She Won’t Be Lonely Long” and Merle Haggard’s “Ramblin Fever,” featured right beside Top’s new country classics like “Dirt Turns to Gold” and “There’s The Sun.”

Top also allowed his harmony singer Cheyenne Meyer to sing a version of “Suds in the Bucket,” popularized by Sara Evans. Near the end when he pulled out crowd favorites like “Use Me” and the viral hit “I Never Lie,” everyone was singing along.

You did wish Top might have put out a little more effort to endear himself to the bluegrass crowd, including perhaps collaborating with some of the other performers over the weekend. But nobody felt like Zach Top was a disappointment.

It will be one of those “remember when” moments when people saw one of the biggest artists in all of country music playing a relatively intimate festival in one of the most beautiful places in the universe, Telluride, Colorado.

All photos and media by Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos. For more video/photos from Telluride and other live events, follow Saving Country Music on Instagram.

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