Innovator or Imitator: Where Do We Draw the Line with Zach Top?

It started with ‘Sounds Like the Radio,’ its honky tonk textures evoking flashbacks of starched Wranglers and luxurious mustaches. Next came numbers like ‘Bad Luck’ and ‘I Never Lie,’ their quivering steel and swaggering rhythms once again casting an Urban Cowboy ambience across mainstream country.

Then, it seemed to happen all at once, as Zach Top quaked the genre with a sound that had all but dissipated decades prior.

With his 2024 album, Cold Beer & Country Music, Top earned mass acclaim for an almost single-handed resurrection of Neo-Traditional country, his music harkening back to an era of Keith Whitley, Randy Travis, George Strait, and the young star’s biggest authority, Alan Jackson.

The Washington native’s throwback style marked a departure from the 808-fueled pop country and the lone-guitar-led bloke folk that has otherwise dominated the genre in the 2020s. The artist came on the scene not to rock the jukebox but instead to chase a neon rainbow that had disappeared with the new millennium. Because of this, many lauded Top–as they so often do when a refreshing sound perks the ear–as some kind of “savior” or even the future of country music.

Well, the future is officially here. Top is back with Ain't In It For My Health, another collection of time-worn sounds and one more round of songs that seem difficult to separate from his venerable influences.

Because of this, we are forced to ask ourselves: At what point do we draw the line between innovator and imitator?

Holler's Alli Patton & Caitlin Hall are laying it all out in their pursuit to uncover whether Top is the prophesied Neo-Traditional savior or if he's simply all hat and no cattle.

As he enters this new era, Top doesn’t appear to be straying far from what thrust him into the spotlight last year: infectious lyrics, impressive guitar chops and a bygone country sound.

It seems he approached Ain't In It For My Health, as a whole, with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. While that’s a smart play, it’s also a safe one, ultimately making for a collection that many of us have heard before–if not one album ago, then three decades ago.

Ain't In It For My Health features an array of lovesick, homesick and world-weary tunes. Mostly, all of them are in the vein of his predecessors. Across the 15-track release, there’s the ‘Chattahoochee’-coded ‘Good Times & Tan Lines,’ which feels inseparable from a Jackson classic. The heartbroken ‘When You See Me’ is Strait country; the vulnerable ‘Livin’ a Lie’ drips with Travis sincerity; and the humbling ‘Between The Ditches’ could have come directly from the Whitley vault.

Sure, he throws in a touch of tropi-country to the mix, adding in some Jimmy Buffett charm or that breezy Kenny Chesney flair here and there. Still, those flourishes can be found in any ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ or ‘When the Sun Goes Down.’

This writer, in particular, isn’t sure what Top himself sounds like. I know what country sounded like in the ‘90s and he’s doing that to a tee. But it goes beyond simply re-envisioning the Neo-Traditional style for the 21st century; he’s reliving it with no barroom rhythm, no weepy steel wail or neon-tinted riff, no dated reference ever out of place. He’s proven time and again that he can do Whitley, turn up the Strait and put on his best Jackson (mustache and all), but I want to know what else Top can do.

There’s nothing wrong with looking to those aforementioned acts as influences. They were and continue to be indelible artists who will forever have their stamp on the genre. What will Top go down in history for, though? Being able to mimic them?

This isn’t to say Ain't In It For My Health is a bad release. It’s actually good, capturing Top fresh off of crossover success with a full-bodied sound and exciting hooks in spades. The plucky ‘Like I Want You’ and the bluesy ‘Lovin’ The Wrong Things,’ among plenty of others, are bound for the charts. He, however, can’t seem to untether himself from something that’s been done.

In the end, he’s no savior. He’s a resuscitator, opening his mouth only to fill the lungs of those who came before. With this new album, he may have just solidified himself as a one-trick pony. While it is a good trick, it will always be someone else’s at the end of the line.

Every breakout artist faces the same question: was that first flash of success lightning in a bottle, or the spark of a long-burning fire? For Top, the skeptics are already circling, wondering if his throwback country sound can stay fresh or if the traditionalism he’s built his name on will box him in. Some even question whether he can top himself (pun fully intended).

The thing about Zach Top, though, is this: he feels less like a trend and more like a torchbearer.

While so many up-and-coming artists are veering down the line of traditional-but-still-playable pop country, Top's music doesn’t feel like a costume nor a façade of the genre's past. To those who immerse themselves in his discography, it’s an extension of who he is–the stories he tells aren’t anything we haven’t heard before, but they’re written from a heartfelt place that feels rare in today’s country landscape. Top holds a voice that is steeped in the timeless rugged truth of the genre at its core, and sharp enough to hold its own in the modern landscape.

What makes him stand apart is not just his sound, but his conviction. Each song and lyric feels like he’s chiseling away at something bigger, as though he’s not merely imitating the legends but adding to their lineage of storytelling. He draws from the same well of tenacity, but filters it through a different lens. It’s rooted in his own truth, never straying from his life journey, and that’s what keeps it from ever feeling like mockery. It feels honest, lived-in and entirely his.

Though there's a risk in staying true to a traditionalist path, especially because so many like to leave the history of the legends untouched, Top’s strength lies in the weight of his sound, which never seems to waver. Where others might dilute their style to chase trends, he leans further in, building trust with fans who crave authenticity.

Can he keep climbing with his upcoming album, Ain’t In It For My Health? Absolutely.

If anything, the doubt only fuels the sense that Top is at the beginning of something monumental. While the skeptics may think he’s here to just give a glimpse of what country used to be but never will be again, Top has shown that he’s here to carve out a new seat at the table among the next generation of country music’s greats.

Zach Top's highly-anticipated 2025 album, Ain't In It For My Health, is available everywhere August 29 via Leo33.

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