Red Clay Strays and Zach Top Play John Anderson’s “Swingin'” the Night After His Death

John Anderson died on Oct. 21 at 71. The next night, the Red Clay Strays were due onstage at Bridgestone Arena, the first of two headlining shows in Nashville, and they opened the question of what a band owes a forebear in the same room as the news.

Their answer was “Swingin’.” Zach Top joined the group to trade verses with singer Brandon Coleman on the song that won Anderson the CMA Single of the Year in 1983 and stayed in his live sets for the rest of his life. It is a generous song to cover and a difficult one to cover well, built on a loose, rolling groove that rewards a band willing to play it easy rather than hard. The Strays took that route.

It was not the only Anderson song in the building. Sierra Ferrell, the opening act, played “Years,” a number already written into her regular set and one she recorded for the 2022 collection Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson.

Anderson’s songs have long circulated through other people’s catalogues. The Mavericks cut “Swingin'” in 2019; LeAnn Rimes rewrote its lyrics to tell the story from a woman’s side on Lady & Gentlemen. In a statement on Instagram, Rimes called him “one of the most unique voices this world has ever experienced.”

Ferrell had “Years” in her set before Anderson died. The Strays play Bridgestone again on Oct. 23. Some tributes are additions. These were already there.