Contemporary country just got a lot more classic as Lainey Wilson and Zach Top joined forces on the iconic country hit “Take This Job and Shove It.” Both Wilson and newcomer Top have been building their careers on retro country sound and attitude, successfully shifting mainstream backward to the sounds of the 1960s through the 1990s.
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David Allan Coe’s “Take This Job and Shove It” (made popular by Johnny Paycheck) sits right in the middle of this golden era of country music in 1977, making it the perfect song for Top and Wilson to perform together.
Zach Top and Lainey Wilson Join Forces On Her Tour
“Bell Bottom Country” star Lainey Wilson kicked off her “Country’s Cool Again” tour at the end of May at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater. She spent June traveling through the East Coast and New England areas, returning southward with a show at Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. During her first night back down South, she called rising country star Zach Top to the stage to help her perform the Johnny Paycheck track.
Top’s agile vocals, reminiscent of the best Top 40 country hits of the late 1980s and early 1990s, delivered the country classic perfectly. Having reached viral fame not that long ago, Top’s clenched hands and stiff posture suggest he still hasn’t quite gotten over his on-stage butterflies. Still, he handled the song like a pro nonetheless. Wilson offered support in the chorus, encouraging the audience to sing along to the famously obstinate refrain, Take this job and shove it.
The musicians hugged one another before Top left the stage, with Wilson calling on the crowd to give the smiling Top a farewell round of applause. In addition to classic country singer Top, Wilson has also included Ian Munsick and Jackson Dean on her “Country’s Cool Again” tour.
Two Non-Nashvillians Storming The Scene
The two singers’ mutual love of classic country isn’t the only thing that makes Lainey Wilson and Zach Top such a perfect pair. Their musical backgrounds are pretty similar, too. Neither musician was born anywhere near Nashville, with Wilson growing up in a small town in Louisiana and Top growing up on a ranch in Washington state. As children, both singers listened to classic country like Glen Campbell, Marty Robbins, and Buck Owens.
With Wilson’s “Country Cool Again” tribute to her genre of choice and Top’s irresistibly nostalgic country vibes, the musicians are making a powerful case for the best this genre has to offer. “Country music…is having its moment!” Wilson told Clash. “I am so proud to be a part of that moment. The reason why everyone wants to be involved with this genre is because of the storytelling. People are looking for authenticity. It’s going to take you to a certain time and place, and memory. Country music can make you escape for just a little bit.”
Top agrees. “This is all I know how to do,” he said in a Wrangler Western interview. “It’s not like I made the choice that I’m going to be a ‘90s throwback guy. I grew up listening and learning from the same guys that [influenced] all those ‘90s guys. So, it comes from just as genuine of a place as those guys did the first time they came around.”
Photo by Daniel DeSlver/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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