Country music reigned at the Ryman Auditorium on Friday night (Feb. 28), as Zach Top stepped onto the revered stage for the first of two headlining shows at country music’s historic Mother Church. The shows come as part of his Cold Beer and Country Music Tour, which sold out just hours after the trek went on sale.
Washington native Top’s brand of tunes — steeped in the influence of ‘80s and ‘90s country music, along with bluegrass — has swiftly pushed him to the forefront of a new generation of neo-traditional artists who are seeing their careers ascend.
Opening the show was Texas native and George Jones acolyte Jake Worthington, who told the crowd, “You’re getting a whole bunch of country music tonight.”
Worthington and Top made good on that promise, proving themselves as worthy musical torchbearers for fans starved for sounds inspired by ‘80s and ‘90s country.
Throughout the evening, both musicians offered a heady blend of their own music, mixed with a plethora of covers of hits from Jones, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, George Strait, Randy Travis and Sammy Kershaw.
Worthington launched into his set with a charismatic onstage persona and deep twang on “Night Time Is My Time,” then previewed a song that will feature Marty Stuart called “I’m The One.” His ace band included Gordon Mote on piano.
He also offered up a solo version of his Miranda Lambert collaboration, “Hello Shitty Day,” before nodding to the influence of Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones by offering up spot-on renditions of Jones classics “The Grand Tour” and getting the audience grooving to the rollicking “White Lightnin’.” He finished with his own “The State You Left Me In,” eliciting cheers from the audience.
“This song got me a lot of opportunities,” Worthington said.
A neon-lit jukebox was situated at the side of the stage, playing snippets of country classics as Top took the stage to fervent cheers from the audience. The crowd was instantly on its feet — and stayed on its feet for the rest of the show.
Top, who was highlighted in Billboard’s “Future of Country Music” spotlight earlier this year, spent his two-hour set blending top-shelf vocals, ace guitar picking, energetic performances and a devotion to old-school country music to prove why he’s leading today’s crop of future country superstars.
He kicked off his set with his Country Airplay top 15 hit “Sounds Like the Radio,” from his debut country project Cold Beer and Country Music, before nodding to his bluegrass roots with “I Don’t Mind,” from his 2022 self-titled bluegrass project.
Top had a laid-back, easygoing camaraderie with the crowd, cracking jokes between songs and regaling them with songs from Cold Beer and Country Music.
“I’m thankful that y’all have come out to make us feel welcome. We appreciate it. I’ll need one of these for the next song,” he quipped, opening up a beer before launching into “Beer for Breakfast.” He followed with “Dirt Turns to Gold” and a particularly well-received rendition of “Lonely for Long,” followed by “There’s the Sun.”
Like Worthington, he peppered his set with perfectly selected cover songs, highlighting his love for country’s deep canon of hits, including Strait’s “Love Bug,” Haggard’s “Ramblin’ Fever” and Travis’ “If I Didn’t Have You.” In his signature starched shirt and cowboy hat, grinning beneath his signature mustache, Top also slyly nodded to those Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck comparisons in a cover of Kershaw’s “Cadillac Style.”
Top has earned the praise of many of his country contemporaries and has amassed 6 million monthly followers on Spotify alone. His Cold Beer and Country Music Tour is set to headline the 7,000-capacity Appalachian Wireless Arena in Kentucky in May. He’s also been on the road opening shows for Alan Jackson and will open shows for Dierks Bentley this year.
Judging from the fan reactions at country music’s Mother Church, which served as home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, it seems like country music is in good hands and that Top is on a direct trajectory to headlining his own slate of arena shows in the very near future — and being the tip of the spear of a crop of new artists bringing classic country music back into prominence.
Here, we look at five top moments from Top’s Ryman show:
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Top Closes Out His Show With a Hit and a Mission
As Top’s set drew to a close, he offered up his viral Country Airplay Top 15 hit “I Never Lie.” Fans sang that memorable chorus at the top of their lungs, and he followed by offering his album title track, which serves as his mission statement, a nod to his classic style and a tribute to two classic bedfellows, “Cold Beer and Country Music.” As the show closed, fans stayed behind in their seats, hoping for an encore until the house lights came up.
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Top Nods to Keith Whitley’s Influence
Among his slate of well-chosen cover songs that evening, Top nodded to his love of another bluegrass-turned-country singer, the late Country Music Hall of Famer Keith Whitley, with a stellar, reverent version of Whitley’s “Kentucky Bluebird,” which was the title track to the 1991 posthumous Whitley album.
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From “Brick House” to Bluegrass
Most modern country music shows have at least one moment — if not several — when the headliner nods to their love of rap, hip-hop or rock. The sole moment of that came when Top’s band member Jimmy offered up a snippet of the Commodores’ 1977 hit “Brick House,” with Top laughing and quickly saying, “Sorry if that felt a bit sacrilegious in the Mother Church.”
From there, the band veered into highlighting Top’s bluegrass roots — or as he put it jokingly, “From ‘Brick House’ to bluegrass, that’s how Bill Monroe intended it.” Top grew up playing bluegrass in a family band, then was part of another bluegrass band that garnered attention from the International Bluegrass Music Association, before he released his solo bluegrass project in 2022. He nodded to those roots by putting his stellar guitar picking skills on display — along with the musicianship of his band — performing “In a World Gone Wrong,” followed by a solo version of his the Ricky Skaggs classic “Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown.” Top recorded that song as a collab with Billy Strings, who was playing his own headlining show that same night across the street at the Bridgestone Arena. Sadly, there was no surprise appearance from Strings, but Top proved he can more than hold his own on the Skaggs classic.
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Top’s “Cheatin’ Song” Gets a Fervent Response
At one point in the show, Top noted it was time for “a cheatin’ song” in the set, launching into his own “Use Me.” The track has long resonated with fans on social media and streaming, reaching the top 40 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Fans certainly responded at the Ryman.
Each time Top sang the line “Tell me you love me and tell me you need me,” screams from female attendees erupted throughout the 2,300-seat Mother Church, with Top glancing toward the balcony with a slight, humored grin from time to time.
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Top & Worthington Send a Musical Warning Shot
If the combination of Top and Worthington on this tour didn’t already send a major signal that traditional country sounds are making a comeback, then the two singers gave a very direct message to Nashville, teaming up on the Ryman stage — the same stage so many of their country music heroes have performed on — where they made their allegiance to country music abundantly clear with a potent collaboration.
To cheers of “’90s Country!” from the audience, the typically jovial Top did make a statement about how at times, “Nashville in general has a real good knack for ruining country music,” and welcomed Worthington to join him on a rendition of the George Strait/Alan Jackson hit “Murder on Music Row,” which had the crowd shouting, lifting up their beer cans and cheering praise for the classic country music that rang through the rafters of the Ryman that evening.
