Conabor Records

****1/2

I find it hard to believe that it was just over 25 years ago that Wade Hayes burst upon the Nashville country music scene with a series of top 10 country hits including the chart-topping Old Enough To Know Better. He created some of the best trad-styled country in what was unfairly termed the ‘hat brigade’ era of young, good-looking, Stetson-wearing singers. I always thought that Wade stood out from the pack and listening to this latest album, it’s undeniable that he still stands head-and-shoulders above the current crop of ‘country’ vocalists that dominate today’s country airwaves. Not only does he have a great voice, he’s also a superior songwriter and musician. One thing that sets Wade Hayes apart from a host of other talented country singers is his passion for tradition. His voice is pure country and his musical roots are genuine. It's obvious this guy was weaned on the real deal. His father, Don Hayes, was a local honky-tonk singer in Oklahoma who took his young son under his wing back in the day. Wade’s lifelong experiences are deeply intoned into each and every note of this album.  

Fuelled by whiskey, vinyl, and heartache, these songs rumble like a vintage pony car across the landscape of American roots music. At its beating heart Wade Hayes has produced a genuine country record that’s both startlingly contemporary and undeniably cool. In between the flashes of honky-tonk energy when the singer-songwriter dips back into the country canon and pulls out dive-bar dust-ups and heartbreakers—there are redemptive songs. That's when his voice really settles in, he starts drinking to forget, the steel guitar and fiddle back off of one another, and the heart of the record comes through: weary but not quite broken-down.
Throughout the album, you hear examples of Wade’s way of painting a picture with his words. The best example of that is in the title track in which he digs back into that old country staple, the special relationship between a man and his dog. Over a gentle rhythm and a muted melody, he sings about how a stray dog that he rescued turned the tables and ended up rescuing him at a low point in his life. Ask That Girl To Dance is a sentimental misfit’s anthem, powered by sweeping romanticism and emotive lyricism as a lonely guy weighs up the risk of rejection against just going through life and doing nothing. We’ve all been there, but Wade sums it all up in little more than a couple of minutes. Then he punches it up with Radney Foster’s Just Call Me Lonesome, an instant modern honky-tonk classic that fits him like a glove.

Wade Hayes is a country troubadour whose classic country songs are enhanced by his warm heart and keen eye. He has teamed up with several ‘old-school’ Music Row writers like Roger Springer and Monty Holmes to create the western swing-styled Honky Tonk In Texas and the reflective Beautiful Mess, a sad-tinged steel-drenched ballad with optimism and hope seeping out of every note. It’s a reminder that music has the power to bring us together, and perhaps, in some little way, make the world a better place. Wade Hayes is traditional without being overly twangy. His vocal strength boasts an unusually barrel-bottomed octave that wraps tightly around every word and emotion he wails out, he also picks a mean guitar. As the music coming out of Nashville edges ever closer to the pop genre, it’s up to artists like Wade Hayes to carry the torch of traditional country. This album certainly hits all the traditional bullet points—from love and heartbreak to wild Saturday nights and hungover Sunday mornings—solid modern songwriting that stays on point throughout, here’s a realistic slice of life direct from the heartland to those who take the time to listen.

www.wadehayes.com

January 2020