From Zach Top “I Never Lie” apparently sticks in many people’s minds. The 27-year-old artist has slowly but surely seen some of his recently released songs gain popularity on the charts (and in the hearts… of fans). Top’s debut album Cold beer and country music was released in April, and since then two of the project’s songs have continued to stand out among country music fans: “Sounds Like The Radio” and “I Never Lie.” They’re both undeniable hits that are everything you could want in a country song. Many are quick to point out that Zach Top sounds like he’s from a different era, but I can assure you he’s not trying to emulate any particular person or style. He’s just pure country, and the music he writes and records just happens to harken back to the simpler times of ’90s country. And that’s no mistake or coincidence. Growing up, Zach Top loved ’90s country icons like George Strait and Keith Whitley. “Sounds Like The Radio” has performed well on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, reaching as high as 16th. But it’s “I Never Lie” that marks the first time Zach Top’s music has cracked the Billboard Hot 100. The song reached a whopping 68 on the chart, and shortly after it hit the charts, Top and his team pivoted to country music. radio. Top has admitted that he didn’t see “I Never Lie” becoming as big as it is but when he spoke to Billboard about his song hitting the Hot 100 list, he had a few ideas as to why it became a hit: “It’s maybe the most country song on the record. It stands out and it only has steel guitar on it – you haven’t heard a song like that sonically in a long time. I think people are hungry for my kind.” Country for a while, and we get a dose of it. Songs like ‘Sounds Like the Radio’ and ‘Cold Beer & Country Music’, you would expect those to be hits because they are up-tempo, they go against what is there now.” The song is certainly unlike anything else released in the modern country music scene. So maybe Zach Top just realized there was a desire for that classic country sound, and happened to specialize in it. The young artist has been taken back by the support he has received in recent months, saying he first realized ‘I Never Lie’ was a hit because fans would lose it if they recognized Top and his band going into the song . during their shows: “We were already playing it in live shows, so people already knew about it. We had our album release show around April 5th and over the last four months it’s really taken off. Our fans know every word to every song on the album – they’re not just waiting on hearing one song. It gives me chills every night when we play that first riff (from ‘I Never Lie’). They don’t need to hear any words, they know it from that first note.” And it’s clear that a number of emerging artists are being discovered on or utilizing the social media platform known as TikTok (or both). The appeal and buzz that Zach Top’s first Billboard 100 hit has generated has certainly been helped by its rise on TikTok. Top is fine with that, but wanted to let people know that he is not a big social media person: “I don’t get on social media much. There’s a girl named Cheyenne in my band who has TikTok and she’ll tell me about videos with ‘I Never Lie’ or other songs in them. I was never very interested in social media. media – it was just a tool to make music available. Early this year I handed it all over (to my team). It can suck you in, scroll through it, and I think it’s probably healthy for me to get away from it to stay. We’d probably all benefit from being a little more like Zach Top in that regard. But anyway, now seems like the perfect time to fire up “I Never Lie,” doesn’t it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OStgpeMokfM