{"id":6343,"date":"2025-09-05T15:19:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=6343"},"modified":"2025-11-09T19:22:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T00:22:02","slug":"zach-tops-rise-to-stardom-isnt-lost-on-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=6343","title":{"rendered":"Zach Top\u2019s Rise To Stardom Isn\u2019t Lost On Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

The speed and suddenness of Zach Top\u2019s rise to stardom isn\u2019t lost on him. The country sensation\u2019s debut album, 2024\u2019s Cold Beer & Country Music, earned Top an ever-growing legion of fans, who love the Washington-born singer-songwriter\u2019s traditionally informed, \u201990s-tinged sound and his undeniable chops as a singer and player. On this sophomore outing, Top loosens up his approach, dipping into the sunny sounds of Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney while celebrating living the life he\u2019d dreamed of as an aspiring singer-songwriter. \u201cWith this record, it\u2019s like I\u2019ve lived a little more, and so I have a little more to say,\u201d Top tells Apple Music. \u201cThere\u2019s just a little more depth to it, I think. It goes a couple layers deeper than the first record, which I love and I\u2019m very proud of it. But I think there\u2019s more meat on the bone with Ain\u2019t In It for My Health.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stream Ain’t In It For My Health<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a> Image Courtesy Of Apple Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lead single \u201cGood Times & Tan Lines\u201d splits the difference between Buffett\u2019s beachiness and Alan Jackson\u2019s no-frills twang, with blessedly traditional production from Top\u2019s longtime collaborator Carson Chamberlain that puts fiddle and steel front and center. Other highlights include the tequila-soaked heartbreaker \u201cFlip–Flop,\u201d which shows off Top\u2019s playful sense of humor, and closing track \u201cHonky Tonk Till It Hurts,\u201d a love letter to country music with shades of ZZ Top (no relation). Below, Top shares insight into a few key tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the Ditches\u201d
\n\u201cMy parents have been very supportive, but definitely aren\u2019t shy about telling me I\u2019m being an idiot if I\u2019m being an idiot. So, there\u2019s that. I\u2019m close with all my siblings, and very thankful to have good relationships with all of my family. Then I\u2019ve got some good old friends that knew me before, who haven\u2019t changed their attitude toward me because of any sort of success and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFlip–Flop\u201d
\n\u201cWith anything that\u2019s kind of like a goofy song, it is a fine line where it starts to get way off into cornball\/cheese world. So [I like] having a song that actually says a little something still but can have that humor. I\u2019m very sarcastic, try to be funny, cutting up, joking all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth of Sanity\u201d
\n\u201cI played a couple shows with Red Clay Strays. We\u2019d already done our show and they were going on after us, and I was supposed to go up and do a song with them. I got a call with some bad news and I was sitting over on the side of the stage or standing in the wings, one song left, and then I was going out, and I\u2019m trying not to bawl my eyes out. Then it\u2019s like, \u2018Put your phone back in your pocket, take a drag on a cigarette, and let\u2019s go sing.\u2019 Where it started, I had a marriage that didn\u2019t work out. When I first moved here I was married, and yeah, I messed that up. So that\u2019s part of that song too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLovin\u2019 the Wrong Things\u201d
\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re dreaming about [making] it, you\u2019re just thinking about the bright lights and the thousands of people that are out there. And that\u2019s such a small fraction of the actual work. Your schedule can get out of hand, you can get run into the ground and worn out and then start looking for a way to cope with it, I guess. A lot of times there\u2019s a lot of options that aren\u2019t necessarily terribly healthy. Free drinks all night up on the stage until you realize it don\u2019t help you sing and play. I think that\u2019s a perfect representation of, I assume, what I feel like a lot of young artists do. They catch a little success, then all of a sudden it\u2019s like, \u2018Holy cow, we\u2019re lit. There\u2019s no rules. It\u2019s wide open. Just go hog wild. Go crazy.\u2019 Then that can damage the thing that got you that little bit of success in the first place, which is rather short-sighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image Courtesy Of TicketNetwork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every product\/service is selected by editors. Products\/Services you buy through these links may earn “SMG” a commission or revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The speed and suddenness of Zach Top\u2019s rise to stardom isn\u2019t lost on him. The country sensation\u2019s debut album, 2024\u2019s Cold Beer & Country Music, earned Top an ever-growing legion of fans, who love the Washington-born singer-songwriter\u2019s traditionally informed, \u201990s-tinged sound and his undeniable chops as a singer and player. On this sophomore outing, Top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6346,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6343\/revisions\/6346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}