Zach Top Releases Two New Songs

Neotraditional Country (#510.8) on the Country DDS.

Zach Top’s career feels like it’s at a crossroads. And which way it turns could also have major implications on the entire country music genre itself. As the clear fontrunner when it comes to young traditional country artists, he’s the tip of the spear helping to re-instill twang and roots back into country music. But it’s hard to not conclude that his latest album Ain’t In It For My Health (2025) didn’t have the same heft and lift that his album Cold Beer & Country Music released in 2024 did.

Cold Beer & Country Music had the super hit in “I Never Lie,” and other very strong offerings “Use Me,” “Sounds Like The Radio,” and “Bad Luck”—all of which are well over 100 million spins on Spotify. The only song over 30 million spins from Zach’s Ain’t In It For My Health is the single “South of Sanity,” which is arguably the best, and most substantiate song on the album.

It was said when both of Zach’s recent albums were released, but especially his last one: his songwriting needs more body and originality if he’s going to sustain an A-list status in country. The story of this era in country music is not just that it’s “more country.” It’s also that the songs are more meaningful. Simply putting new spins on ’90s country themes isn’t going to cut it in the long term.

Smartly, Zach Top has released two new songs in hopes of re-igniting some of that initial momentum behind him. And generally speaking, they feel like they could be valuable in that pursuit.

“Good Girls & Cowgirls” is not going to earn Zach Top, or co-writers Carson Chamberlain and Tim Nichols any comparisons to John Prine. But you definitely can hear how an appeal can be found in this song. Unlike some of the tracks from Ain’t In It For My Health that were a little too “on the nose” with their familiarity with ’90s country standards, “Good Girls & Cowgirls” comes with a more fresh perspective, and one you can hear resonating with both the guys and the ladies in the audience, which is how a song can earn that viral lift.

Zach Top premiered the song at the Under The Big Sky Festival in Montana in July. Though sometimes new songs take a moment to warm up to, especially in the live context, the enthusiastic crowd was singing along by the final chorus, and ecstatic with the results.

“Good Girls & Cowgirls” is paired with the more sentimental song “Other Side of Hurtin’,” which might remind some of “South of Sanity” in it’s more slow and cerebral nature, if maybe a bit more inebriated. Again, you can leave your John Prine comparisons for Pony Bradshaw and Ian Noe. But you can see how the song is an answer to the call for songs with more substance from Zach Top. It was also co-written with Chamberlain and Nichols.

As “South of Sanity” shows signs of stalling in the teens on the charts—and never really made for an ideal summer single—these two new songs give Zach Top more options of where to draw from next, though songs like “When You See Me” and “I Know A Place” from the last album could also be strong options.

Even though it’s human nature to think that whatever trend is happening now is the one that will continue into perpetuity, life, and country music especially has always proven to be cyclical. Will this neotraditional country resurgence bolstered by Zach Top and songs like Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” elongate into the future? Or will we look back five years from now at this moment as fleeting?

This fate might hang on the fortunes of a specific song or two, like it has on “Choosin’ Texas,” and “I Never Lie.” Will either of these two new Zach Top songs perform similarly? Time will tell. But it does feel like a step in the right direction for Top.

7.5/10

– – – – – – –

If you found this article valuable, consider leaving Saving Country Music A TIP.