Do not sleep on Carson Chamberlain’s talent.
Oftentimes considered the “savior” of traditional country music, Zach Top seems to be everywhere these days. Riding the highs of his debut album last year and his highly-successful sophomore effort this year, Ain’t In It For My Health, the Washington native has simply flown through the ranks in country music over the past two years. Whether it’s his ACM win for New Male Artist this past April, his five CMA nominations and a win for Best New Artist this November, his high praise from fellow artists such as Dierks Bentley or his continued domination on social media, Top has, without a doubt, become the genre’s new “it” artist.
While all the awards and viral success are great, the “I Never Lie” singer has also helped usher in a new generation of traditional country fans. Of course, it’s not like Top is the only artist sticking to the sounds and styles of ’90s country, with names like Randall King, Drake Milligan, Mae Estes and tourmate, Jake Worthington, all carrying the torch of traditionalism. With that being said, however, Top has quite clearly become the leader of the pack over the past two years.
If we’re being honest, it’s hard to truly dislike Top. Beyond his killer guitar skills, smooth vocals and aforementioned ’90s sound, he’s also simply charismatic as all hell, effortlessly delivering hilarious moments like when he accepted his Best New Artist Award at the CMAs with a Coors Banquet in his hand.
With that being said, obviously, the music still has to be killer. And while it is, there’s one person in particular, outside of Top himself, who deserves a lot of credit for the “South of Sanity” singer’s success. That one person is none other than Carson Chamberlain.
If you’re not familiar with Chamberlain, you undoubtedly should be if you’re a country fan. Though he hasn’t had an illustrious career as a solo artist, he has arguably been one of the most important musicians and producers in Nashville for the past forty years. At the beginning of his career, the Kentucky native was most famous for being the legendary Keith Whitley’s steel guitar player, a key bandleader and tour manager for the late legend.
After Whitley’s untimely death in 1989, he’d become tour manager for both Clint Black and Alan Jackson. With Jackson, he’d not only help compose the likes of his classic albums, Don’t Rock the Jukebox and Everything I Love, but also pen several number one singles for the “Chattahoochee” singer, such as “Love’s Got A Hold On You,” Everything I Love,” and “Between The Devil And Me.”
In the early 2000s, he’d co-write George Strait’s 2000 #1 hit, “The Best Day,” Mark Wills’ #1 singles, “I Do (Cherish You),” “Don’t Laugh At Me,” and “Wish You Were Here,” as well as Travis Tritt’s Top 30 hit, “Country Ain’t Country.” He’d also find lightning in a bottle with Billy Currington, producing all four of his highly-successful albums to start his career. These four albums produced six #1 hits, including the likes of “People Are Crazy,” “Good Directions” and “Must Be Doin’ Something Right.”
Over the past two decades, Chamberlain has worked with the likes of Easton Corbin, Cody Johnson, Kameron Marlowe and more. With that being said, however, his biggest success story has undoubtedly been his work with Top.
As the story goes, he reached out to the “Use Me” singer quite early in his career in 2018, before the release of his 2022 self-titled debut album, thanks to a clip of Top beginning to go viral. At the time, he thought it was nothing more than a scam email thanks to Chamberlain’s short, direct approach. Months later, his girlfriend at the time caught wind of Chamberlain’s offer and encouraged him to actually look into Chamberlain’s incredible career accolades.
After reading the fact that he worked with the likes of his heroes, such as Whitley and Jackson, Top finally reached out to him and got the ball rolling. As their relationship progressed, the “Everything I Love” co-writer would begin setting up co-writes for Top and get him familiarized with the industry.
In an interview with Dale Brisby on the Rodeo Time Podcast, Top would reveal some of the invaluable advice that he gave him to start his career.
“Another thing that he told me too, he was like, ‘You’re great. You sing great. You play great. You know good songs. But you’re not ready; you don’t know who you are yet.'”
Top would detail how he and Chamberlain spent the better part of three years curating his sound and style as both a musician and co-writer while surprisingly avoiding a ton of live gigs from 2018 to 2021. After writing well over 300 songs over the three-year stretch, the Washington native would finally release his aforementioned debut album in 2022, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Though he’d admit that the long wait and process with Chamberlain was frustrating at times, especially due to the fact that fellow inspiring artists at the time were playing way more live gigs around Nashville, Top would explain that all the advice he received from the Kentucky native was “solid gold.”
“Looking back on it, it was solid gold advice for sure.”
With a CMA Nomination for Best Album (Ain’t In It For My Health) and an additional three nominations at the 2026 Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance (“Use Me”) as well as Best Traditional Country Album (Ain’t In It For My Health), all of which were produced by Chamberlain, it’s safe to say the entire process worked out pretty damn well for the pair.
Zach Top Tour Dates
February 5 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Coors Light Birds Nest 2026
February 21 – Zurich, Switzerland – The Hall
February 25 – Copenhagen, Denmark – K.B. Hallen
February 28 – Stockholm, Sweden – Annexet
March 3 – Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
March 7 – Rotterdamn, Netherlands – Rotterdam Ahoy
March 8 – Berlin, Germany – Uber Eats Music Hall
March 13 – London, United Kingdom – The O2
March 14 – Belfat, Northern Ireland – SSE Arena
March 15 – Glasgow, United Kingdom – OVO Hydro
April 9 – Florence, Arizona – Country Thunder Arizona
April 24 – Lubbock, Texas – Jones AT&T Stadium
May 22 – Norfolk, Virginia – Patriotic Festival
