Seemingly grown in a secret lab in Nashville to play RodeoHouston, nation neotraditionalist Zach Prime made his rodeo debut on Tuesday night time earlier than a sold-out crowd of 70,865.
Once I first heard “Sounds Like The Radio” in early 2024, with its thumping opening drums and his Telecaster crying, I instantly imagined him enjoying RodeoHouston’s five-point stage. A part of me needs the organizers had pulled one of many outdated phases out of storage for only one night time.
The illegitimate love baby of Alan Jackson and a day of tacky nation music movies on CMT in 1994, Prime has change into probably the most intriguing and fascinating acts of his type. 2024’s aptly-named “Chilly Beer & Nation Music” LP performs like a sun-bleached best hits album you’d excitedly flip to inside your favourite cowboy dive bar’s analog jukebox subsequent to considered one of King George Strait’s hits collections.
Prime’s producer, Carson Chamberlain, hung out with none aside from Keith Whitley on the highway as a bandleader and metal guitarist. Nashville songwriters Paul Overstreet, Tim Nichols, and Mark Nesler have been enlisted to hone and co-write the 12-song set. This crew was answerable for writing a few of the largest radio hits of the ‘90s and early ‘00s for Strait, Tim McGraw, Hint Adkins, and Mark Chesnutt.
Overly analyzing the 27-year-old Prime and his pedigree ruins the enjoyable of all of it. He’s ranch-raised from rural Washington state and talks like he’s from proper exterior Boerne, and we’re dwelling in a digital age the place influences come flowing at us from all sides. Prime’s intention is true and pure, and he’s not wrapping himself in fads. He’s additionally received an ideal eyebrows-to-moustache ratio.
Beginning his night time with “Sounds Like The Radio,” Prime and his band had the group within the psalm of their fingers. A basic jukebox, naturally, was sitting at stage proper.
“That is far and away the most important present we’ve performed,” Prime mentioned, marveling on the viewers by means of the static of the stage’s overpowering lights. Simply two years in the past, he and his band performed in entrance of a crowd of 12 someplace in Alabama, he mentioned. He then cracked open a chilly can of Coors Banquet beer to kick off “Beer For Breakfast,” the trademark yellow can sweating at his toes.
Prime and the band supplied up a unfastened and swinging model of outlaw legend Merle Haggard’s “Ramblin’ Fever,” main into “Dangerous Luck” and the dishonest tune “Use Me.”
One of many perks of masking RodeoHouston concert events is accessing the night time’s setlist forward of time. Every time we see highlights on the record, we get giddy, figuring out what’s about to occur.
“This was the primary music I ever realized the right way to play,” Prime mentioned, the band launching into “Amarillo By Morning.”
Enjoying a devoted George Strait cowl on the stage at RodeoHouston isn’t simple. There’s a brashness and presumptiveness to it; should you do it fallacious, they may not invite you again. It’s like screwing up a hallowed hymn in church. Naturally, Prime’s staff nailed it, updating the tempo to a strut.
“I By no means Lie” — which has almost 115 million spins on Spotify — was the most important sing-along of the night time. Prime confirmed off his bluegrass roots with “Issues To Do,” dripping with a depraved Ricky Skaggs-esque solo. Because the band closed with “Chilly Beer & Nation Music,” a saddled horse was led to the facet of the stage for Prime, changing the standard pickup truck.
And with that, the most recent RodeoHouston “it” cowboy rode away in grand, galloping type.
Setlist
Sounds Like The Radio
The Kinda Girl I Like
Beer For Breakfast
Lonely for Lengthy
Dust Turns To Gold
There’s The Solar
Ramblin’ Fever (Merle Haggard cowl)
Dangerous Luck
Use Me
Amarillo By Morning (George Strait cowl)
Justa Jonesin’
Cowboys Like Me Do
I By no means Lie
Issues To Do
Chilly Beer & Nation Music
