The video for “Don’t Cheat In Our Home Town” is available now
Breakthrough singer, songwriter and musician Zach Top releases Me & Billy—a three-song EP featuring two-time Grammy Award-winning artist Billy Strings. Previously released last fall as an Apple Music exclusive, the EP can now be streamed everywhere and finds the pair reimagining versions of Top’s original tracks “Bad Luck” and “Things To Do” along with a cover of Ricky Skaggs’ “Don’t Cheat In Our Home Town.”
“We had a lot of fun, traded back and forth some playing and whatnot,” Top shares. “It’s so fun to watch him play. And I feel like he’s known so much for a player that it gets passed over sometimes how freaking good of a singer he is too. It was so fun to get to sing with him and him kind enough to come in on a couple of my songs and sing a second verse, sing a little harmony, do that kind of thing. It was a blast.”
The new release adds to a breakout year for Top, who was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 58th Annual CMA Awards and was named Discovery Artist of the Year at the 2024 MusicRow Awards. He released his widely praised debut album, Cold Beer & Country Music, last spring. Produced by Carson Chamberlain (Billy Currington, Easton Corbin), the record garnered over 3.5 million streams in just its first week.
Furthermore, Top’s Cold Beer & Country Music headlining tour completely sold out just hours after tickets went on sale and features stops at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium for two nights, New York’s Terminal 5 and Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway among many others. Additionally, Top is supporting select dates with Alan Jackson on his “Last Call Tour” and will join Dierks Bentley’s “Broken Branches Tour,” kicking off in May.
Raised in Sunnyside, Washington, Top grew up on classic country music around the family farm. At the age of seven, he formed a band with his siblings which set the stage for his musical ambitions. Throughout his teenage years and early twenties, Top honed his craft by playing in various bluegrass bands before moving to Nashville in 2021, where he has been steadily making his mark as an artist to watch.
Raised in Michigan and now based in Nashville, Billy Strings is known as one of music’s most compelling artists. In the midst of yet another landmark year, Strings released his acclaimed new album, Highway Prayers, this past fall on Reprise Records. Produced by Strings and Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Mac Miller), the record debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales chart—the first time in 22 years that a bluegrass album has been the top-selling album across genres.
The new project follows Strings’ first live album, Live Vol. 1, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Albums chart and won Best Bluegrass Album at this year’s 67th Annual Grammy Awards. Since his 2017 debut, Strings has also been awarded Best Bluegrass Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards, Artist of the Year at the 2023 and 2022 Americana Music Awards, Entertainer of the Year at the 2023, 2022 and 2021 International Bluegrass Music Awards, Best New Headliner at the 2022 Pollstar Awards and Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic at the 2021 Pollstar Awards among several other accolades. Known for his electric live shows, Strings has performed countless sold-out dates worldwide and will continue his extensive headline tour through this spring including upcoming stops in Nashville, Denver, Asheville, Atlanta, Lexington and more.
