Lightning In a Jar
Warren Zeiders has captured quite the audience with his own kind of country.
In 2021, Warren Zeiders shared a song, “Ride the Lightning,” on social media. It was the second song he’d ever written and the Hershey, Pennsylvania, native didn’t expect the reaction it would soon receive – or the way it would change his life.
A simple song with just Zeiders’ voice and an acoustic guitar, “Ride the Lightning” nonetheless announced the former college lacrosse player as a formidable new figure in country. Lyrically, the song spins a dark yarn, as the narrator grapples with landing in the electric chair after a life living “on the wild side.” Zeiders’ gritty vocal lands somewhere between the soulful twang of Jelly Roll and the rough-hewn, emotive wail of the late Layne Staley, the kind of seemingly disparate sounds that continue to populate his music.
Four years later and Zeiders, 25, is one of the genre’s most exciting new artists. He won the fan-voted Breakthrough Male Video of the Year at last year’s CMT Awards ceremony, beating out Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers in the process. And he’ll kick off his first-ever headlining tour, the “Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal Tour,” this fall, hitting most corners of the country and taking the trek into Canada.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Zeiders came out of nowhere. A lifelong music fan, Zeiders first picked up a guitar as a child, but his commitment to playing lacrosse took precedence over music for the first 20-odd years of his life. He picked the guitar back up in his early 20s and first got listeners’ attention by posting cover song videos to TikTok, putting his own spin on tracks like Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up,” Whiskey Myers’ “Stone” and Afroman’s “Crazy Rap Song,” also known as “Colt 45.”
In 2021, Zeiders gave songwriting a try. He’d enjoyed music when he attended church growing up, but rebuffed his mother’s suggestions he practice guitar – he took lessons as a child – in favor of spending more time becoming a better lacrosse player. Those early encounters with music must have stuck, though, as Zeiders has a knack for writing catchy melodies and is easy and confident on stage, despite having only a few years under his belt as a professional musician.
His assortment of covers and those initial original songs would land Zeiders a record deal with Warner Records in early 2022. His independently released Acoustic Covers and 717 Tapes the Album got Warner re-releases, and he’s released two full-length records since then: 2023’s Pretty Little Poison and this year’s Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal.
Musically, Zeiders is chameleonic. With songs like “Intoxicated,” “Relapse” and “Pretty Little Poison,” Zeiders joins fellow rock-adjacent country acts like HARDY, Cody Jinks, and Bailey Zimmerman in finding influences in the ‘90s and aughts, incorporating sludgy grunge, radio friendly nu-metal and arena pop-rock – think Nickelback, with their undeniably hooky radio rock anthems – into his take on contemporary country music.
Hard-edged country isn’t the only trick up his sleeve, though, as he dips into heartland pop-rock a la Kip Moore or Eric Church on tracks like “Crying Whiskey” and “You for a Reason.” “Bad” takes cues from R&B/hip-hop-influenced Morgan Wallen and Jelly Roll with its quick-flow verses and slick melody, and “Withdrawal” recalls some of Wallen’s softer moments, pairing a down-and-out lyric with a song structure that’s pop at its core.
There are other little sonic surprises sprinkled throughout Zeiders’ catalog, like the alt-rocker “Take It to the Grave,” a surefire hit that will remind listeners of a certain age of crossover rock hits from the mid-aughts, with a heavy, anxious, Korn-esque riff leading into the kind of infectious-as-hell chorus that put bands like 3 Doors Down on the Top 40 map when Zeiders was just a small child.
Zeiders’ live performances are as dynamic as his eclectic sound. His history as an athlete no doubt enables the sheer display of energy he puts on at each show, during which he can command an audience with a swampy rocker like “Never Look Back” as well as he can captivate them with softer moments like “Ride the Lightning.” He’s also refreshingly unafraid to move his body in ways not traditionally associated with country artists, like when he lifts up his shirt to show off his six-pack for rabidly screaming fans.
Of course, as many of these fans would quickly let you know, Zeiders is something of a heartthrob. He has a warm, easy smile and long, wavy hair, and dresses more like a rock star than the prototypical baseball cap bro that was once so ubiquitous in the country genre. Just check out his recent profile in GQ, which focuses on his “intense mindset” when it comes to fitness – he reveals having notched seven concussions during his lacrosse days – and his on-stage moves, which he says are part of who he is and not a bit or persona.
That’s a welcome dose of sensuality in a genre that can be stiff and conservative, and plays like a less hokey version of Luke Bryan’s hip-shaking early days. Zeiders is playful about injecting a little sex into his persona, too, flashing big smiles when serving up fan-favorite moves instead of taking himself too seriously. To boot, in his video for “Intoxicated,” he channels some TRL-era pop star moves and rips the black tank top he’s wearing off before strutting around in tight jeans like Anthony Kiedis.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
As he first built a fan base online, Zeiders still maintains a strong connection to his social media followers, sharing behind-the-scenes clips from writing and recording and taking time to respond to fan comments, including occasionally fulfilling requests for covers. It’s not all business, either, as Zeiders shares plenty of shirtless clips and photos, including no shortage of shots from the gym. He also lets fans into his home life, too, posting photos of his dog, Teddy, and his parents.
While none of this is revolutionary, Zeiders is showing an alternate approach to being a country star in the social media age – particularly a male star. Some of Zeiders’ contemporaries, like Zach Bryan, lean into the serious, sometimes somber side of their craft, while others like Cody Jinks and Parker McCollum tend more traditionally masculine, at least in their presentation.
Zeiders’ willingness to play into the heartthrob factor and show a more playful side – while still making the kind of raw, emotional music that characterizes artists like Bryan or Jinks – aligns him more closely with rock or pop artists than country, and ideally making room for more artists to inject some fun into what can be a staid genre. And the virality he’s drummed up in the process also connects the dots between him and other out-of-left-field genre sensations, like traditionalist Zach Top, who also first found an audience by posting cover songs, and the folky Sam Barber, whose breakout hit “Straight and Narrow” was the first song he ever wrote.
Whether Zeiders has reinvented the country music wheel is yet to be seen, but he is the latest in a quickly growing and wildly popular movement within the genre driven largely by social media and fan interaction. Music Row may still hold some sway over who gets signed and who lands on country radio, but stories like Zeiders’ reinforce that Zach Bryan’s viral online success was not a flash in the pan, and that the genre as a whole is finally, truly growing beyond the confines of the Nashville machine.
And whether he’s breaking hearts, breaking records or just breaking out a new gym selfie, one thing is clear – Zeiders is making country a whole lot more fun.
Photo Credit: Alex Screws
 | A guest post by
|