Coming soon?
In many ways, The Red Clay Strays and Zach Top have shared a similar trajectory over the past few years. Though the two sit on opposite sides of the genre, with the Strays bringing a wholly unique blend of country, southern rock and gospel elements from album to album and Top spearheading the rise of traditional country back to the mainstream, it hasn’t stopped the pair from garnering a lot of crossover fans and, more importantly, a whole lot of success both commercially and critically.
For the Strays, they’ve been nothing short of dominant during the recent award show cycles. At the 59th annual CMA Awards last November, they’d dethrone Old Dominion as Vocal Group of the Year en route to their first-ever CMA win. They’d follow that up last week and dethrone Old Dominion once again, this time taking home their first-ever ACM Award for Group of the Year.
For Top, he’s arguably been even more successful. Not only did he take home Best New Artist at the CMA Awards last November, which he accepted with a Coors Banquet in hand, but he also scored his first-career Grammy in February. In turn, Top became the first-ever winner of the brand-new Best Traditional Country Album category, bringing it home with his sophomore album, Ain’t In It For My Health.
What makes the two so special, outside of the incredible work in the studio, is the number of times they’ve collaborated in the past year or so. Last April at Georgia Rodeo, the pair teamed up for the first time and surprised the crowd with a performance of Waylon Jennings’ 1990 single, “Where The Corn Don’t Grow,” which was later covered and popularized by Travis Tritt in 1996.
This year, they’ve been making appearances together early and often. Back in June, at Red Clay’s album release party for Grateful at the Pinnacle in Nashville, Top would make a surprise appearance, and they’d play the track once again. They’ve also teamed up for performances of George Jones’ “Bartender’s Blues,” The Strays’ “I Don’t Wanna Know,” Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” John Anderson’s “Swingin'” and, most recently reuniting for Tops’ “Use Me” and Genesis’ “That’s All” during Top’s final show of the year in Nashville.
With the amount of collaborations throughout the year, fans have been absolutely begging for an official collaboration from the two powerhouses. Back in June, Top would add more fuel to the fire when he explained that he and Red Clay frontman Brandon Coleman have been wanting to finally write and record a song together.
“Any time we’re around each other, we love singing together. He’s one of my favorite singers in the world. So we keep on talking every time we see each other. It’s like, ‘Man, we gotta write something some time and record something together.”
Fresh off their most recent team-up in Nashville to close out October, Top would once again add fuel to the fire regarding a Red Clay collaboration over the weekend. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, the “I Never Lie” singer would upload a behind-the-scenes look at the pair practicing the aforementioned Genesis cover backstage.
Keeping it pretty vague, Top would tease future endeavors with the Strays in 2027 in the caption.
“Always honored to get to pick and sing with my friend Brandon Laine of the Red Clay Strays. Here’s to more fun with them boys in 2027!”
A few hours later, the Alabama band would respond in the comments, saying they “ought to get one on the books” next year.
“Yessir!! We ought to get one on the books for next year. I’ll have my people call your people..”
Of course, there’s no concrete confirmation and/or announcement of anything tangible between the two. With that being said, however, it seems quite inevitable at this point that we get a collaboration between the two at some point in the near future.
The chemistry between Top and Coleman has been through the roof as of late, every concert appearance together goes viral and fans have been begging for an official release. Simply put, it makes too much sense.
Before you go, watch their aforementioned “That’s All” cover here:
