Walker Hayes at the KIX 96 Studio Lounge on Monday, December 6th
Walker Hayes lit up the KIX 96 Studio Lounge on a cold Monday within the first 30 seconds. His big personality, height (he’s super tall), and extremely talented vocal range had something to do with that! Walker played six songs for the room, enjoyed pizza with fans afterwards and told us to keep on requesting his song “Pants” so he could buy a minivan.
Walker Hayes is a family man, he had a lot of stories about his wife and his three kids, possibly another one to come soon – hence the minivan. It was sweet to see him light up when he told the crowd about how his kids photo with Santa went, or even how one of his favorite songs is “Two Lips,” which he co-wrote with his wife. Walker is a real down to earth guy who is always, always, always writing songs in his head. He even admitted he is addicted.
Walker Hayes is in the middle of putting his first album together but something unique and in my opinion brilliant is that you can go to his website and click on “the Lounge.” In the Lounge you will find three new songs, which change, monthly that you can listen to. After you listen to them you vote on your favorite and the most popular one is the month’s free download. This month’s is “Nobody” which also happens to be the fun little rockin’ song he opened up his set with.
The cute story behind “Nobody” is, how Walker loves to write songs at church on the “sermons notes.” His wife gets mad at him when he does that, but “Nobody” was a song that he wrote during church and she actually loved it. My favorite line in the song is “sugar fo-shizzle.” Walker then went to play “Pants” for us which is his current single. He decided to name his daughter’s college fund that as well. I thought that was super funny and cute. When Walker did a lot of opening act gigs he always was frustrated how people would talk really loud or go to the bathroom so he decided to write songs that would make people just stop and be like, did he really say that. “Pants” was one of them; it’s about how his wife wears the pants in the family.
Walker had stories for almost every song and he was very chatty and personable. It is always so much more fun when artists are like that. You can relate to them more. Walker Hayes also played for us “Two Lips,” a Christmas song which was inspired from the movie Christmas Vacation, “Mama’s Hot,” and even a rap song called “White Boy.” “White Boy” was hilarious because he talked about how he likes rap, especially the Sugar Hill Gang, but it is so hard to do that in the country world.
Overall Walker Hayes can definitely sing the highs and the lows very well; he’ll knock your boots right off! I also think he stands out from other country artists with his song writing and his personality. I can’t wait to hear his new album when it comes out!
Click here to check out his website, some of his other tunes, and even The Lounge where you can vote on this month’s songs!
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
