20-year-old Hunter Hayes is country music’s latest up and coming star, and is all the talk in Nashville at the moment. The promotional effort for this kid is insane; you can’t walk down music row without passing at least a few benches with his name plastered on them. He looks like a country version of Jesse McCartney and sounds identical to Rascal Flatts’ head singer, Gary LeVox. At first, this was a huge turn off to me because it just sounded like a young kid trying to impersonate one of their favorite artist—I did not recognize it was not LeVox singing until I was asked ‘What do you think of Hunter?’ I’m still not particularly keen on his voice, but he does show a lot of talent and promise. Initially I was shocked that he was signed to Atlantic Records because he sounded so much like another popular artist and you only need one—radio hosts had said they would not play Scotty McCreary because they didn’t need a Josh Turner imitator. Then I learned how personally invested he was in his self-titled debut album. Hayes plays every instrument on the album, played a part in the writing of every song, and co-produced it with Dann Huff. That’s impressive. You know he is doing something right if his label trust him with that much on the album. I have never heard of an artist getting that much creative control (writing all the songs) on an album. Not even Taylor Swift got to write most of the songs on her debut album. Hayes is no stranger to the industry though. At age 4—yes age 4—he was sharing the stage with country legend Hank Williams Jr, playing the accordion and singing ‘Jambalaya.’ Check out this adorable video…
He also co-wrote Rascal Flatts’, “Play” in 2010, which made me a little more forgiving on the fact that he is so similar to Rascal Flatts. His first single from his album, “Storm Warning” was a fun upbeat song, and his debut album released October 11. Still haven’t made up my mind on if I like him or not, only time will tell. He is growing on me though. Have a listen to these two songs from the album and y’all decide for yourselves!
Hunter Hayes – Rainy Season (my personal favorite from the album)
Taylor Swift did write or cowrite all of her songs on all of her albums actually, even te first one.
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