Zach Top is, without a doubt, changing the country music landscape for the better. The Washington state native is turning back the clock and transporting listeners back to the thick of the '90s, bringing back the sound of artists like Keith Whitley, Alan Jackson, and George Strait. While the internet took inspiration from his sound too far, creating a conspiracy theory that he is Alan Jackson's son, there's no denying that the two mustached men share many similarities sound-wise. While some say that Top's sound is a dead ringer for Jackson, Top has always said that he never wanted to be a '90 gimmick, but his sound was heavily influenced by what he grew up listening to. https://www.instagram.com/p/DElEBU2yOTp/ In a recent Billboard interview, Top noted that he is honored to be compared to the legends of the past and is happy to spearhead the movement back to that sound. "Obviously, I've got sonically, a reminiscent sort of thing going on from the '90s stuff. But I kind of...I feel like I cut my teeth on the same kind of stuff the '90s guys cut theirs on. For one thing, I'm honored that people see me as sort of a spearhead or a leader back towards traditional country music or country music the way that I feel in love with it and, you know, still love. It's a fun spot to be in, and I think it's a lot of just the right place at the right time sort of thing."  Similar to Ashley McBryde's statement about moving away from the touchstones of country music and how if we move too far away from them, the genre is in trouble, Zach Top feels the genre has a natural tendency to continually return to those roots or touchstones. Zach Top agrees that when a "new and a little edgy" sound comes along, people get excited and embrace it for a while. However, the craving for traditional country grows as time passes, and the genre returns to its classic sound. "We've got our bread and butter, the roots, the traditions where we came from, and then something new and a little edgy comes along, and everybody gets excited about that, for good reason. And (they) kind of run with that for a little while until people are like, 'Yeah, but this is where we came from. Let's get back to it a little bit.' So I think I came along at the right time for that."  I think Zach Top would be a hit no matter what his breakout timing was, but his rapid launch into stardom was a part of the timing. Many country music listeners were getting tired of hearing the same pop country songs, and as we moved out of bro country, soulful artists like Chris Stapleton were taking off. Still, no one with that neo-traditional twang, a true '90s throwback, was in the mainstream limelight... until Zach Top was discovered. Zach Top appeals to multiple generations, which is heavily in his favor. He will keep getting bigger, and I am here for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut_k2_xdjUc

Sounds like HARDY is cooking up some new tunes. Yesterday, he shared a heartfelt post on social media about a song on his "next record" called "Buck On The Wall," which was inspired by his late grandfather who passed away last year. In addition to sharing the big buck he harvested this week, Hardy explained that his grandpa built a hunting cabin for his family back in 1989 that is now filled with 30-40 bucks on the wall that various family members have gotten over the decades. He elaborated, saying it's been a hard fall and winter season without him as he's been sorely missing his grandpa while hunting without him, though he's "damn proud" to keep the family tradition alive and plans to continue putting "bucks on the walls that he built": "I’ve got a song on my next record called 'Buck On The Wall' that perfectly describes this deer and the story behind it. Some of you know, but my grandfather passed away a year ago. In 1989 he built our family a little cabin which we have used as our deer camp for the last 35 years, where there are 30-40 bucks mounted on the wall. This fall/winter season is the first one he hasn’t been a part of, and I wish so bad he could’ve seen this deer, but I’m damn proud to keep our family tradition alive and keep putting bucks on the walls that he built. So this one’s for him. Slide 2 is my grandmother, his wife. Love you Pop." I can't wait to hear it, and I'm sure it will be an emotional and heartfelt tribute to some of his most special and cherished memories of his grandpa. You can see the photo with his sweet grandma on the second slide: https://www.instagram.com/p/DExa4y_OFMT/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=27b24d98-958c-4d37-ac66-9bb3739c1154 Hardy most recently released his fully rock album QUIT!! in July, which is of course the follow up to last year’s the mockingbird & THE CROW, a half country, half rock album. He also worked with superstar Post Malone for his first full-length country album F-1 Trillion, recording a song called "Hide My Gun." On an episode of the Zach Sang Show podcast, Hardy discussed what it was like to work with Posty and how he came to Nashville and “fully immersed himself” in the culture of Music City and the way most country artists go about making music, which is pretty different than almost any other genre. Hardy noted that other than the fact that they started writing and worked well into the night when they had meetings, sometimes working into the next morning, Post did it the full Nashville way and he respected that: “Well that’s what I love about what he did. Other than the time frame, like instead of starting at 11 we started at night, but he came to Nashville and he sat and he listened. He didn’t… and I don’t mean that like, he is a great writer, great writer, and he can write country lyrics, everything about it, but what I mean is he came to Nashville and said, ‘I wanna do this the way you guys do it.’ And he had songwriters that the world has never heard of, but in Nashville they’ve written tons of hit songs. He didn’t just want me and Ernest, Morgan and Brad Paisley, and Erich Church and Tim McGraw.” Maybe they'll record another song together for Hardy's next album, too... "Hide My Gun" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEl5q2bbWh4

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