Zac Brown Band photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.

One of the biggest strengths of country music is its ability to connect with the real-world issues of typical, working-class people in Middle America, and the Zac Brown Band is entrenched at No. 1 on GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown with a song and a video that do exactly that. The four-minute clip for “Highway 20 Ride” is in the top position for a second week on this weekend’s edition of the countdown, hosted by Nan Kelley.

The video brings appropriate visuals to the song’s storyline about a Georgia-based truck driver struggling to maintain a good relationship with his kid, despite the fact that he’s divorced the child’s mom and has to leave the state to earn his paycheck. The band plays it well, and Zac sings it like he means it.

The No. 1 comes at a fruitful time for ZBB. The group is in the running for Best New Artist at Sunday’s 52nd annual Grammy Awards, and plenty of pundits think the band could well walk off with the trophy. Zac’s crew is slated to perform the national anthem at NASCAR’s annual Budweiser Shootout exhibition in Daytona Beach on Feb. 6. And the band has a key opening slot during part of the Dave Matthews Band’s 2010 summer schedule. Beginning July 3, ZBB teams up with DMB on seven dates, including three gigs in major-league baseball stadiums: July 16-17 at Citi Field in New York and July 23 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

Top 20 Country Countdown counts down the week’s top country videos from No. 20 to No. 1 as voted by viewers on each week on GACtv.com. A new countdown premieres every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on GAC and airs again Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET; Sundays at 1 p.m. ET; and Mondays at 10 a.m. ET. Viewers can vote for their favorite videos, as well as purchase Top 20 artists’ albums and ringtones at GACtv.com.

THIS WEEK’S CHART:

1. Zac Brown Band “Highway 20 Ride”
2. Carrie Underwood “Cowboy Casanova”
3. Kellie Pickler “Didn’t You Know How Much I Loved You”
4. Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins “Hillbilly Bone”
5. Miranda Lambert “White Liar”
6. Keith Urban “‘Til Summer Comes Around”
7. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now”
8. Reba McEntire “Consider Me Gone”
9. Radney Foster “Angel Flight”
10. Toby Keith “Cryin’ For Me”
11. Gary Allan “Today”
12. Josh Turner “Why Don’t We Just Dance”
13. Bucky Covington “Gotta Be Somebody”
14. Jason Aldean “The Truth”
15. Chris Young “The Man I Want To Be”
16. Keith Urban “Only You Can Love Me This Way”
17. Trace Adkins “All I Ask For Anymore”
18. Billy Currington “That’s How Country Boys Roll”
19. Taylor Swift “Fifteen”
20. Chris Young “Gettin’ You Home”

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