“Country Music ain’t like it used to be.”
To many, the same sentiment that has plagued the modern era of country music on the radio and in the charts is used to begin Zach Top’s self-posted biography on Spotify.
It’s what the 26-year-old has prided himself on in the early stages of what he hopes will be a long-running career in the industry. Top wants to stand out in an age where contemporary, pop-leaning country music has a firm grasp on the biggest institutions in the format. He wants to pay homage to what he grew up knowing country music to be.
But in a way, it’s ironic.
Top isn’t sending any messages to the artists of today, nor is he implying that his music is superior, but the crowd he’s appealed to most are the ones uttering the phrase he’s based his sound upon, which makes sense given his background. Top was about as country as it got growing up on his family’s ranch in Washington State. Not only did that fuel his interests, but it also kick-started what’s since become his life.
That is, in his words, “Cold Beer & Country Music.”
The Album
When you hit play on Top’s second LP, you hear the strum of an aggressive electric guitar and a simple tom and bass drum riff. The easily discernible acoustic sound of the drumkit and the symphony of guitars, complemented by a fiddle, take any listener right back to the 90s.
Top’s voice only adds to the nostalgia. It’s smooth, sweet, and complete with a twang, which rounds out the classic sound he was shooting for.
“I’ve always kind of had the bug for music,” Top said in an interview with On The Record. “(My parents) played a bunch of classic country around the house. We always had George Strait on. … I grew up on that stuff.”
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As country as “The King” has always been, it makes sense that he inspired much of the instrumentation, cadence, and even lyrics. Along with the usual suspects—cowboy, beer, jukebox, and loneliness—words like “Chattahoochee” and even “whip-poor-wills” appear, pairing Top’s 21st-century release with the many that came before him.
“Cowboys Like Me Do” has Tim McGraw sounds, “The Kinda Woman I Like” listens like an upbeat head-bopper that Daryle Singletary or Vince Gill was capable of, and “There’s the Sun” epitomizes a country love ballad, all while being accompanied by dive bar anthems like Top’s title track and “Bad Luck.”
But, like everything, others weren’t exactly fans of his latest release.
Why is that?
The Criticism
Zach Top’s life might resemble a 90s radio, as he’ll be quick to tell you, but it has a modern twist.
Whether it was in his family’s bluegrass band, “Top String,” as a child, at the Grand Ole Opry performing his debut single in his early 20s, or presently, performing songs from his new album in front of increasingly bigger crowds, strumming a guitar to a classic song has become his passion. And while many of his listeners likely enjoy the old-school country sound that’s arguably missing from many modern-day releases, others don’t. They’ll take things in the other direction:
“These are recycled songs … this is unoriginal.”
“We’ve heard this before.”
Where Top’s supporters, and perhaps Top himself, see lines of similarity and inspiration, others see plagiarism. They see a knock-off version of the classics that Zach Top measures himself again. But pioneering a sound isn’t exactly feasible for an industry as deep as the country one, nor was it what Top seemed to be after on this record. He aimed to create his music and tell his own stories within the bounds of the 90s sound he grew up adoring. And he did.
That’s what sets the 26-year-old apart from the rest of his peers in the genre. He’s embraced a modern-day, traditionalist identity. It’s refreshing. It works for him, and that’s what matters. Country music fans living in the modern generation can immediately associate this sound with Zach Top, as their parents did with George Strait, Keith Whitley, or Randy Travis.
No matter what Top chooses, he’ll face the backlash as a rising star in an increasingly polarized industry. If he suddenly turns to contemporary country, he’ll face criticism, as reflected in his biography’s first sentence. And if not, he just wouldn’t be himself.
It’s ironic, but Top isn’t worried about that. His goal was to channel and proudly create the classic sound he loves. Has he made everyone happy in the process? No. But then again, he doesn’t need to.
Zach Top creates music that represents his passions, memories and likes, and his second studio album, one of the most classic-sounding collections of music we’ve heard in a long time, indubitably proves that.
“That’s what love and happiness is all about anyway,” Top said in a video inviting listeners to join his fan club, “Cold Beer & Country Music.”
