…While country music is reaching new heights commercially, the age-old debate about real country music is as heated as ever. (See: mudslinger Gavin Adcock’s recent beef with outlaw torchbearer Charley Crockett.)
For Zach Top, a young traditionalist inspired by smooth stars of the 1990s like George Strait and Randy Travis, it seems that conversations around the genre’s purity aren’t so much angering as they are befuddling.
Today’s country regularly strays from its roots to incorporate production from other genres, yet there isn’t a hint of modernity in Top’s sound. His dedication to a bygone era of country radio serves as a form of subtle resistance, and his emergence as a breakout star tells another story:…

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