Recognition because the Saving Nation Music Artist of the 12 months is exclusive. It’s not tied to any particular album, music, dwell efficiency, or business success. It’s actually not a recognition contest. It’s reserved for the one artist that almost all embodied and carried out the thought behind the phrase “saving nation music” in a given 12 months. It’s for somebody who fearlessly shoulders the reason for true nation and preserving the roots of the music, and regardless of the percentages and adversity, finds success doing so.
The Saving Nation Music Artist of the 12 months is somebody who rekindles our spirit and hope that nation music will probably be one thing future generations may even get pleasure from, and in it’s most real type. And when contemplating all of those necessities, is there a query in anybody’s thoughts that in 2024, the performer who most embodied this philosophy in nation music was Zach Prime?
Zach Prime was the one who took the love for nation music steeped in a mode 35 years prior to now, and never solely paid it ahead, however made it hyper widespread in a capability we by no means dreamed of being attainable within the current tense. He took younger individuals who’d by no means heard ’90s nation, and outdated individuals who grew up on it, and put all of them in the identical viewers. Then he made that viewers as enthusiastic as any viewers you’ll ever witness.
Proving that conventional nation can nonetheless be commercially relevant, inspiring different performers to take up the mantle of true nation music, and opening doorways for his fellow neotraditionalist performers to succeed is the ability that Zach Prime’s success has afforded. Zach Prime makes it attainable to see a future in nation that’s extra true to nation’s roots than the current.
It’s not that we haven’t seen different performers over the previous few years take up the cost of conventional nation and discover success with it. However they’ve by no means been so good to take it to the subsequent stage like Zach Prime. Performers like Joshua Hedley and Jake Worthington helped set the desk for the resurgence of the ’90s nation sound, nevertheless it’s Zach Prime who’s bringing the feast.
And it’s all resonating and catching on so deeply, the mainstream can’t ignore it. Zach Prime is receiving mainstream nation radio play. He’s getting nominated for CMA Awards. Above all, Zach Prime merely has a cool issue that audiences join with. And at 27 years of age, his profession is simply getting began.
The Saving Nation Music Artist of the 12 months doesn’t undergo a nomination course of, and there’s no vote for the winner. But when there was a transparent runner up in 2024, it could be Kaitlin Butts. Not solely did she launch a landmark, conceptualized album in Roadrunner! that’s nominated for Saving Nation Music Album of the 12 months, she may need been the hardest-working performer in nation music in 2024. Consistently on tour and enjoying festivals coast-to-coast, Kaitlin burst via this 12 months, and have become one of many prime performers in unbiased nation.
However 2024 will go down because the 12 months of Zach Prime. And once we look again in any respect that he achieved in 2024, we could be giving it credit score to those moments for serving to to take the trouble to save lots of nation music to new heights beforehand unseen. And there’s no concern that Zach Prime will hop genres on us, or contemporize his sound. If he pulls a wild card, it will likely be to launch a bluegrass album like he did along with his debut.
Breathe a sigh of aid true nation music followers. The long run is in good fingers. The way forward for nation music is Zach Prime.
