Taj Williams (00:39.46)
and welcome back to choice tracks the ultimate playlist podcast where we played those chart-topping hits I'm tailgate Taj with my tailgate buddies

Damon (00:51.106)
Yeah, I'm daemon. I'm still daemon. Not da daemon!

DW (00:59.242)
Howdy, I'm Danger.

Taj Williams (01:04.824)
So this week we're doing our Chop Topper hit songs and we happen to have a country hit, so super country hit that's on. Yeah.

Damon (01:13.775)
I what you're going for? Okay, I couldn't tell I couldn't tell what that what okay. All right

Taj Williams (01:19.37)
I was going for a radio DJ on a country radio station. yeah.

Damon (01:23.062)
All right, can I hear that? Maybe.

DW (01:24.332)
Yeah, we're just gonna leave that right there.

Taj Williams (01:27.946)
Yeah, No. Well, I don't know. I just do it the best I can.

Damon (01:30.574)
You don't want to offend any country DJs.

DW (01:33.589)
Nah

Damon (01:39.022)
So where do we land? What's hot?

DW (01:40.68)
I'm

Taj Williams (01:43.713)
So.

DW (01:43.98)
So, tell me back D, let's get it.

Taj Williams (01:46.476)
What's hot? we landed on number, when we were going, we got delayed a little bit between picking and recording. So when we originally picked, it was number 79. It's actually moved up to charts as of today to number 72. And it's, I Never Lie by Zach Topp.

DW (02:03.231)
Mm.

Damon (02:05.037)
Okay.

Taj Williams (02:20.992)
Now,

Damon (02:31.246)
Yeah, I believe so.

DW (02:34.11)
Full beer and country music,

Damon (02:36.782)
Cold beer and country music. But Taj likes his coffee.

DW (02:41.314)
Sorry about that, but yeah.

Taj Williams (02:49.342)
I actually like it. mean, it's like a classic country song. What I also appreciate about it is like, it's message slash metaphor is kind of hidden in the background. Like, it's not like throwing it to you like as the main hook line, and it's not like super obvious. But once you listen to this song a couple of times, you're like,

he's lying about everything. I don't care that you're telling me you're not lying. Like he is lying about everything else. He's singing the song.

Damon (03:23.084)
Right, like who the fuck gets up like on time, dates a model, you know, whatever, doesn't drink whiskey? If you don't drink whiskey, then there's something fishy, dude.

Taj Williams (03:30.163)
Right?

Taj Williams (03:34.392)
Well, that's because this woman left him and has a new bow and she's checking up on him. He's like, I'm fine. I know you're fine moving on, but I'm better. I'm never late for it. Exactly. I'm... Exactly. So.

Damon (03:44.91)
Right. So he's full of shit. 100 % full of shit.

DW (03:51.316)
I'm so grateful, aren't you?

Damon (03:51.64)
Pull yourself together,

DW (03:57.034)
You ever had an ex do that? Try to make themselves seem better, you know, when y'all come around.

Damon (04:03.662)
like fake something or just like at the moment make it look good.

DW (04:05.449)
Yeah.

I remember an ex shout out to her, Nicole. Not first Nicole, second Nicole, if you know, know. I mean, it's not second Nicole, the first Nicole. Sorry, I had two Nicole's in my life. Anyway, first Nicole is the one I actually booed out the house with 18. And we were shacked up with my cousin and his thin girlfriend in a house that she got from her grandmother. And so it's all four of us in the house. Damon, we can hear you rapping.

Taj Williams (04:37.208)
All right. We know your blood sugar's low.

DW (04:41.312)
Yeah, it sounded good. You did it back up. Yeah.

Anyway, so long story short Yeah, we broke up I moved out I Called because I was gonna come by and get my stuff and she's got music playing in the background and the homegirls acting like you're having a party and shit I'm like really that's what we're doing. We're having a party. Okay, cool I'll let you go and then a day later one of her friends I talked to her she's like we only did that cuz you called if you had to call she was following her ass off I was like, wow see

Taj Williams (05:14.891)
You

Taj Williams (05:19.454)
So they were like crank up the music, somebody clink some glasses in the background.

DW (05:23.266)
yeah, yeah, they were acting like they were partying like crazy. Like they're saying this is the only way you can home. I'm like, okay, cool. We're coming to find out. She crying for the past three days and wouldn't stop. And then she's like, yeah, it is what it is. I cry over me too. I understand.

Taj Williams (05:42.978)
So what did you think of the song?

DW (05:48.79)
So, I'd do the same damn thing. If I came across an ex and this is all the crap that she hated about me and the reason why she left me, yeah, I'd change all that up. Because after you left, I got so much better. Even though it may be a complete total lie and I may be all the way in shambles, I'm not gonna let you have the satisfaction of that. I'm gonna tell every dirty damn lie again.

Taj Williams (05:53.654)
Right?

Taj Williams (06:13.336)
I got you. It makes sense.

DW (06:18.159)
Yeah, what was that one movie where the girl comes across her boyfriend in a club with his new Asian girlfriend and she's like the perfect batch for him and then he was in a bike accident which actually made his penis bigger and the whole nine and she couldn't believe it. It's like, yep, I'm telling all this shit.

Taj Williams (06:36.514)
No.

DW (06:38.242)
So I feel where he's coming from. This is what I like about Zaktop. Zaktop is a traditional country artist. This is his debut as far as going back to like a 90 or early style of country music. This is the only single so far on the album. And literally when you listen to the album all the way through, you get that nostalgic country feel. He was on tour with Lenny Wilson, might be wrapping it up now, or have already wrapped it up. But I do know for a fact that

You know, this is where country music sits for me. I understand country has to cross over and has to do a lot of things in order to maintain and move forward. I have no problem with that. But when you're talking about actual songs that got meaning to songs that make you feel something, songs that that actually you can ride down the road and listen to. And it's never upbeat, like fast-pitched pop type song. These are real type country songs that you hear coming straight out of honky tonk.

This is what I like to listen to. So I definitely see why they saw them move up the charts. Hopefully they'll keep on moving by the year, by being the top 30s or so. I like to see it rise up a little bit more and bring back that traditional sound.

Taj Williams (07:52.95)
Right. And what's weird is like it had hit 68 and then it dropped down and now it's going back up. So, you know, it's staying on the charts. It's only been on there for seven weeks. And I think you kind of hit the head on the nail. We're like it's classic country. I feel like it's a different, you know, blues. Blues is interesting because blues either puts you in the blues, right? Or you're already blue.

And that's kind of where this country honky tonk, you know, classic country is, is that like, this is a song to be sad, you know, have a tear in your beer. But then when the song's done, you're done type of thing. But it's one of those songs like it's you're already feeling that way type of thing. So I guess it's similar to blues. I don't know. I know that's a weird analogy to make, but yeah.

DW (08:45.512)
You're good.

Damon (08:48.366)
It's now on the head touch. Just so you know.

Taj Williams (08:51.744)
Now on the head, head on the nail. Tail on the donkey.

Damon (08:54.766)
if you want to head on the nail, you can do that too. Yeah, no, Zaktops is pretty good. He's an older sounding musician, but he's like 23 or something like that. Like he's pretty young, 27. Yeah.

DW (08:58.978)
you

DW (09:07.65)
27, yeah he's 27, he's still in his twenties. But yeah, he's got an old soul, you can hear it in his voice. Definitely have an old soul.

Damon (09:17.176)
Got the Hank Williams Jr. kind of five nineties. Yeah. I mean, it's all that's one like country, I think was like getting big in the nineties with Garth Brooks and kind of coming back to that now. think that like you see a wave like of styles of music getting, you know, like the most, props, right? Like, and this is, this is definitely true to the charts.

with him already jumping after, you you picked the song, he was already climbing. So, I mean, and it kind of is expected too. But Zach Topp, yeah, he's definitely like, that's somebody that I'll listen to. I actually found myself listening to this and being like, wow, okay, I live in Texas, but I'm from New York. Am I becoming a Texan now? Is this new style of country?

DW (10:13.676)
Mm-hmm.

Damon (10:17.346)
that's sort of reinventing what they did in the 90s. You know, is it making me like country-esque? I don't know. Am I gonna get some chaps or boots and a cowboy hat? Maybe.

Taj Williams (10:25.4)
you

DW (10:31.502)
slow down, slow down there, buddy. I'm just saying. That's the lifestyle process. I'm saying, once you get the boots, you ain't going back. I'm just telling you right now. no, you can do it. You can definitely do it. And that'll put you in more of that country mood. But he's actually from Washington. So the fact that he has this kind of...

Taj Williams (10:34.314)
You

Damon (10:34.398)
Alright, let's not go that far. Let's not go that far.

Yeah, that's true. I don't want to be doing that shit.

Damon (10:55.532)
Right. Yeah.

DW (10:56.866)
Style within him is definitely an eye opener because you wouldn't expect that. You would expect him coming straight from back mountains, Tennessee or some place off here in Poldone, Texas. And no, he's actually from the other side of the country and yet it still works. So I have no problem with that.

Taj Williams (11:22.114)
Right.

Damon (11:23.38)
And the, you know, the whole neo, neo traditional country. I mean, I guess that's like, that's the throwback to the forties to the sixties. I mean, that's going really far back. So I guess he's trying to like play around campfires and shit, but I can kind of dig that. I can kind of dig that. And I really liked, what I heard, like, as far as videos go. so he was doing like the,

DW (11:35.906)
you

Damon (11:53.186)
the whole thing. I think it was like the George Dickel whiskey sessions and really good sound. I think any alcohol sponsors, they're going to do it up as far as like production values and all that. But that really did like help them out as far as like, you know, if you're going to catch a video, but there's a ton of videos. These are all over Wikipedia. I mean, for that new...

DW (12:09.41)
Mm.

Damon (12:22.798)
For him being so young, think that's a proffes to him. you know, we roll the dice on this episode style, so we never know where we're gonna land. But I think we landed pretty well on something that we wouldn't have talked about otherwise, you know?

Taj Williams (12:38.326)
Yeah. And then I thought what was interesting is, I mean, because I've never really followed the charts, but like when we rolled the dice on this, like I got a guy for that was number 80 right below it. And now it's dropped to 81. So and this one has gone up. And it's like I think we I know we kind of called that on that song that was going to drop. But it was just interesting to see them pass each other. And then

DW (12:38.55)
Yeah.

Taj Williams (13:08.534)
The first one we did, that sailor song, is still on the charts. It's number 26 now. It's the highest it's been. And when we picked that, that was in the 90s. So it's just kind of interesting seeing that trend of different songs moving up and down. So yeah.

DW (13:13.75)
Mm-hmm.

DW (13:23.776)
Yeah. You know what else is funny? We did. We called it, definitely. And you know, not to say that we're having the curve or anything, you know, we did call it that was going to drop. We did not like that song. We do like this song and it's going up. The sailor song was definitely going up. It got caught in like, not movie scores, but TV scores for sure.

Damon (13:25.772)
Well, yeah, we kinda called it.

Taj Williams (13:28.044)
You

DW (13:50.722)
It's all like advertisements and commercials. Like it's definitely blown up. And it was one that we even brought up before, before it really hit the charts. and it was Shaboosie, the bar song tipsy. And it's yeah, that turned around and shot up to number one. So it's like, you know, not to say we got it the pulse, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna pat us off back real quick, you know, just to say that. So.

Damon (14:03.84)
yeah.

Damon (14:16.334)
everybody's going to predict that it's going to be you, Dietrich.

Taj Williams (14:18.2)
Right, that's for sure.

DW (14:18.991)
No, no, no, it's gonna be us. It's gonna be us.

Damon (14:23.854)
Well, what was it? A bar song? Let's hear that real quick. I want to see kind of what we're missing out on for

DW (14:27.18)
Yeah.

Damon (14:42.904)
Yeah, that's a good one. I really do like that song.

DW (14:45.911)
Mm-hmm.

Taj Williams (14:47.0)
It what I really like is the music video. Music video is like super simple. Him to sing in front with the pickup truck, the people come in going behind him. But like the way you sing this in your car with the hand movements, he's doing the exact same thing. And you're like, yeah, that's that's exactly what I want. So like. And it's funny because like I. Yeah, I know this gets played a lot and.

DW (15:09.078)
Yeah, you're say you did this morning.

Okay.

Taj Williams (15:17.536)
I still don't get sick of it, and it kind of reminds me of as far as like amount of time it's been played that I don't get sick of. It reminds reminds me of Lumineers Hi Ho or Hi that the Ho Ho song. I'm getting the title wrong, but you know that Lumineer song. Hey ho, there we go. Yeah, yeah.

DW (15:33.748)
Yes.

Damon (15:33.774)
Ho-ho's? Hey-ho? I think it's Hey-ho. I think. But yeah. No, I didn't mean. Yeah, that was like top in the charts forever. Shibuzy, like I remember not knowing who he was and then the mention that Dietrich had put out there. And then I just started hearing him on the radio all the time. But like, yeah, for him to be number one, like for a while, that's pretty awesome.

DW (15:38.679)
Yeah.

Damon (16:02.56)
always makes me wanna like go on vacation or something. Or sit at a bar. I don't know why.

Taj Williams (16:05.292)
you

DW (16:05.932)
Mm-hmm.

Taj Williams (16:10.082)
So yeah, yeah, no, and it's been number one for 17 weeks, which is crazy. So and it's been on the charts for 30. So yeah.

DW (16:16.404)
Yeah.

DW (16:20.91)
Remember hearing that on YouTube and we was going through the algorithms and they actually had you actually had like five or six Visualizers for it. So I knew that they were gonna start promoting it heavy But it was just the sheer Like make of the song. It was just like okay. Yeah, this is gonna be Automatically out top there are some things that you can hear and just know That this is gonna either get on your fucking nerves or you're gonna enjoy the hell of it

for the longest time. This is one of those songs that I've still enjoyed to this day. Went to a different party in San Antonio. It was a different vibe altogether, but this song came on and everybody was singing it in themselves. So was like, yep, yep, you do what you're supposed to do. Not mad at them. And yeah.

That's why we're doing this top 100. There's songs that are hitting the top 100. They could be at the bottom one week and next thing you know, will shoot to the top of the charts and you never know. It's all about the music. It's all about the artistry. It is about big business. Yes, record labels still are existing. Not a lot these days, but there still are some that are existing and pushing out good product. But at the end of the day, a good song is a good song. And that's what we're trying to promote. Either good songs or bad songs, but good songs.

Taj Williams (17:10.892)
What the?

Taj Williams (17:34.891)
it

Taj Williams (17:38.773)
Exactly. So, okay. All right. So, anything else you guys want to cover? Are we good? You're good for now?

Damon (17:39.47)
That's right.

Damon (17:47.63)
Well, I think I'm good for now, but yeah, that was a good range there between the country song and kind of a country song. I don't know. Shaboosie, he's sort of throwing out the country vibe with that drinking at the bar and stuff, but it's definitely more of a pop song, I think.

Taj Williams (18:03.682)
or cut,

Yeah, let's.

DW (18:07.808)
Yeah, shout out to Jay Kwan. He's actually the one that had the song named Tipsy, where he got that one to the two to the three to the four from that cadence came from Jay Kwan. His song was called Tipsy. So it's just one of those things. But yeah, he did pay tribute to him. They did a whole set on a music award show together. So yeah, it's definitely a good look.

Taj Williams (18:35.138)
Yeah, when that song was a major hit too, everybody's getting tipsy. It's like, yeah.

DW (18:40.022)
Yes. Everybody in the club get tipsy. Yeah, we're just alcoholics at heart. That's all it is.

Damon (18:45.582)
I think everybody likes to get tipsy.

Taj Williams (18:45.982)
Right? Right?

Damon (18:54.562)
Well, you know, there's lots of things to make us that way, so... But anyway...

DW (18:58.166)
yeah, we have lots of ice. Mine's a royal with cheese. Now play it. If you know, you know. But I think we pretty much covered it. Yes, we are going to pick other songs, but we don't actually pick the songs. We pick the position. So if any of y'all get to complain about the fact that we've done nothing but punchy music the past two times on the road, keep listening. You're going to hear something else.

Taj Williams (19:03.968)
You

Taj Williams (19:25.239)
Right.

DW (19:25.75)
You might hear one song that actually might become your favorite song and then you won't be mad at us anymore. So just chill. Calm down.

Taj Williams (19:33.677)
Right?

Exactly.

Damon (19:36.684)
time we're done with this we'll a life-long playlist.

Taj Williams (19:40.261)
Right? So, okay. Well, this has been Trace Tracks. You can find this on tracetracks.com or emails at tracetracks.gmail.com. Both of those end with a Z. And we ask that you please subscribe and listen to all past and future episodes. Let's go and sign out. I'm Tailgate Taj saying have a terrific day, folks.

DW (19:40.352)
like that.

Damon (20:05.678)
Let's see, I'm still Damon.

Taj Williams (20:06.506)
You

DW (20:09.602)
Yep, and I'm back D and I've never told a lie in my life. And we're gonna pick up the needle, but y'all keep spitting those choice tracks.

Damon (20:20.864)
Yee-haw! No, I don't... I think I would get cancelled for that one too. Alright. Sorry everybody. No, I'm not sorry.

Taj Williams (20:25.548)
you