Joe Nichols Praises Zach Top For Reviving The Neotraditional Sound: “It’s Opened Doors Back Up For Me”

High praise for the young neotraditionalist.

Joe Nichols is one of those artists who was criminally underrated during his time for laying down some classic country heaters. From his hit “Brokenheartsville” to “She Only Smokes When She Drinks,” this man was laying down classic country gold over and over again.

However, as the radio game and bro country became a thing, like many other artists, Joe Nichols changed his sound to better fit what was succeeding in country music. But don’t get it wrong: the whole time, Nichols’ music was still 100 times more traditional than the music on the radio.

With Nichols’ last few projects, we’ve seen him return fully to those classic country roots, most recently with his 2024 album Honky Tonks And Country Songs, where he pays homage to old Bocephus with a stellar cover of “A Country Boy Can Survive.” And Nichols is on a track of creating more traditional country music with what he has in his pipeline.

During a recent conversation with Dillon Weldon of the Drifting Cowboy podcast, Nichols shared that he has some new music on the way and that he’s going back to his tried-and-true neotraditionalist roots.

After hearing fans say they missed the sound of his older hits, Nichols realized he was playing the game too much and is ready to throw out the idea of what makes a radio hit and go back to making music he loves.

“You know, I always get people who say, ‘I used to love his older stuff. I wish Joe would go back and do “Brokenheartsville,” and “What’s a Guy Gotta Do,” “Tequilia (Makes Her Clothes Fall Off).’ You know, over the years, I agree. I want to do that stuff too. But as the format changes, as everybody changes, leadership at record labels changes, you know, personnel and radios always made the world go round.

Made it really hard to walk that tightrope of ‘I want to be the guy I feel like being,’ which is traditional country. But man, you’ve got to find that place that you can fit an old school sound like that into fresh, today’s radio. 

With this album, I don’t really give a damn anymore about those kinds of rules, and I just want to make some good old school country music, and that’s kind of the path we are on.” 

We at Whiskey Riff have heard some of the new stuff that Nichols is working on, and man, it is good.

Nichols shares that his ability to return to the sound of his early career would not be possible with the resurgence of the traditional country sound that newcomers like Zach Top, Jake Worthington, and Braxton Keith are laying down. Zach, of course, is the poser child for the movement, turning back the clock to that tried and authentic ’90s twang.

Zach Top has spoken on the fact that he was tagged as the leader of this movement after the release of Cold Beer & Country Music, but noted that his love for this traditional sound was far from a gimmick act:

“I think that maybe part of the reason people like my music so much is that it’s not a… It’s not like a ’90s gimmick thing. I’m not trying to… this is all I know how to do. It’s not like I made the choice that I’m going to be a ’90s throwback guy.

It’s like I grew up listening and learning from the same guys that all those ’90s guys would have been influenced by. So it comes from just as genuine of a place as those guys did the first time they came around.”

And if it weren’t for Zach Top leading that movement, Joe Nichols believes he wouldn’t have the creative freedom to return to that sound from his early career.

While Nichols thanked all the younger guys who are reviving that sound for this ability to have hits with a more neotraditional sound, he names Top explicitly as a pioneer.

“I think the younger guys have helped me. For me to break through with something traditional country would not be nearly as easy as it is for like a Zach Top who is doing some traditional country stuff. In a weird way, it’s opened doors back up for me.

When they tell me, ‘You’re too country for radio, you’ve got to compromise, you’ve got to sing the “Sunny and 75,”‘ which I love that song by the way. But I can’t have a catalog full of those; I don’t feel like it represents me. So when I put out songs like ‘Billy Graham’s Bible,’ and some of the real country stuff that I’ve done, that’s the resistance right there, immediately it’s just ‘too country.’

It’s just a format that has traditional country anymore, and Zach Top’s kind of kicked that door down for us; that’s kind of let this old guy back in.” 

Amen to that, and country music is better for it. Joe Nichols is a country music legend, and I am very excited to hear more from this upcoming traditional project.

Check out the entire Drifting Cowboy podcast episode while you’re here:

The post Joe Nichols Praises Zach Top For Reviving The Neotraditional Sound: “It’s Opened Doors Back Up For Me” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.