An enthusiastic crowd greeted the superstar on the rise
There’s one guy barnstorming country music and creating a renaissance in sound not seen since the 1980s. His name is Zach Top.
Top is pulling a Randy Travis: turning the mainstream country sound 180 degrees on its head, back toward a more traditional ethos, and widening the audience as a result (to paraphrase a one Garth Brooks). This, after years as an “underground” artist, a result of the success of his breakout album Cold Beer & Country Music, which is also the name of this tour.
Top seems aware of his affect on country music, opening with the boot-stomper “Sounds Like the Radio,” about the genre’s best, “Back in ‘94 ya know.” The crowd sang it back to him, with the fervor of a crowd you’d be more likely to find in Top’s native Texas than in the DMV.
Top took the stage at Fillmore Silver Spring on Friday (May 2nd) in a black cowboy hat, strapped with a grey-blue telecaster against a white, tan, and grey Mo Betta shirt (I know those ‘Garth Shirts’ anywhere.) “There ain’t nothing like a Friday night country music crowd,” he said as he greeted the enthusiastic audience. The music stayed the focus, the only stage decorations were an on-stage jukebox and a massive neon sign of Top’s steer-skull logo.
Top is equal parts Alan Jackson, with his mustachioed, good ole boy attitude, and George Strait—he just stands and plays, the glint in his eye and smirk at the edges of his youthful face the only tells of how much fun he’s having turning the legendary Fillmore into a honky-tonk (complete with on-stage jukebox.)
Top dug into his time as both a mainstream artist and his years as an underground star. “In a World Gone Wrong” represented his early start in bluegrass, while “Beer for Breakfast” was a nod to the start of his turn towards a 90s country sound.
There was plenty from that aforementioned breakout album, too. Tongue-in-cheek tunes “The Kind of Woman I Like” and “ Ain’t That a Heart Break” had the crowd grinning at his pickin’. Heartfelt heartbreakers “Use Me” and “I Never Lie” demonstrated an achingly mature side to Zach Top, who is only 27 years old.
And if that weren’t enough, the newly-minted ACM New Male Artist of the Year covered some of his favorites. This included an acoustic Keith Whitley tune that brought down the house. Top’s bandmates Cheyenne performed a note-perfect “Suds in the Bucket” by Sara Evans.
Opening for Zach Top on most dates is Jake Worthington. The Big Loud-signed artist is another traditionalist about to blow up. He’s already released one album, and had a buzzy single called “Hello Shitty Day” with Miranda Lambert. With a lived-in voice evoking George Jones, Worthington burned down the house. “Honky-Tonk Crowd” was a favorite, as he wriggled and gyrated with a guitar hoisted almost under his neck ala Johnny Cash.
Worthington told me earlier in the night that he’s been astounded at the amount of people who know his lyrics in Zach Top’s crowds. Especially those who know all the words to last week’s latest single, “It Ain’t The Whiskey.” It is so far his biggest streamer since launch and the song that may move him to mainstream consciousness in the genre.
Zach Top is riding an incredible rocket ship to stardom. Buoyed by the commercial and radio success of “I Never Lie,” this young man is an unavoidable force in country music. (And I mean literally unavoidable. Even before asking to cover this show, I had caught two shorter sets of his by happenstance of his performances on shows I was at.) He closed the prominent New Faces showcase at Country Radio Seminar in February, is the youngest artist to sell out NRG Stadium in Houston for the rodeo, and is supporting Alan Jackson and Dierks Bentley throughout the year.
Just how big is Zach Top? He needs to play arenas on the fall run of this tour due to demand. To put a point on it: Zach is right now on Top. And one day, they’ll be singing about how the radio sounds like back in ‘25, ya know?!
