Alan Jackson's 'Good Time' celebrates shutting down a honky tonk; Zach Top's 'Country Boy Blues' similarly heads to Lower Broadway but finds no country music on the strip. Zach Top channels traditional 1990s country influences like George Strait and Randy Travis, offering a sound free of modern production touches. His album Ain't In It for My Health contains clear-eyed comedic writing, tight arrangements, and simple, direct lyrics about love, leisure, and whiskey. Top's dedication to classic country radio functions as subtle resistance amid genre crossovers, and his rise indicates enduring fan appetite for traditional country.
The idea behind Alan Jackson's 2008 hit "Good Time" is pretty simple: work sucks, thank God it's Friday, let's go shut down a honky tonk. Seventeen years later, Zach Top has the same impulse. On "Country Boy Blues," he polishes his truck, puts on his Sunday best, and hits the town—Lower Broadway in Nashville. But Top, unlike Jackson, ends the night in solemn disbelief: He walks through Music City's epicenter without hearing a single country tune.
There's a sweetness in its simplicity: No mind-bending metaphors to be found, just crisp verses that fit smack in the middle of the beer-drinking, heart-aching, forgive-me-for-my-ramblin'-ways Venn diagram. In these songs, Top professes his first love ("Guitar"), giddily does his best Jimmy Buffet impression ("Flip Flop"), takes his girlfriend to his favorite secluded spot ("I Know a Place"), and knocks back a few too many shots of whiskey ("Honky Tonk Till It Hurts").
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