It took
Walker Hayes over a decade to break into the country mainstream, but when he finally landed a Top Ten hit in 2017, "You Broke Up with Me" landed with the force of an explosion -- appropriate, since its parent album was called
boom. This 2017 album came six years after his full-length debut,
Reason to Rhyme, announced a promising talent in a bro-country vein, but
boom. was fresh work that fused modern R&B, contemporary country, hip-hop, and rock, announcing a distinctive talent.
Hayes consolidated this breakthrough with the clever "Fancy Like," which reached number one on Billboard's Country charts in 2021, a hit that was the cornerstone of his third record,
Country Stuff the Album.
Hayes is a native of Mobile, Alabama born on December 27, 1979. He grew up in Mobile, dividing his time between music and sports as a child and teenager. He wound up earning a music degree from Alabama's Birmingham-Southern College, then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his wife moved to Nashville in 2005 with dreams that he would become a professional musician. He signed a song publishing deal and then, on the strength of a demo he recorded for
Keith Urban,
Hayes inked a deal with Mercury before quickly moving to Capitol Records.
Hayes released his debut single, "Pants," in 2010, which wound up reaching 60 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The full-length
Reason to Rhyme followed in 2011, but it didn't chart.
Over the next few years,
Hayes worked as a songwriter, landing placements with
Colt Ford and
Rodney Atkins in 2014. Capitol dropped him, so he worked at Costco as he continued to write, releasing the single "Pimpin' Joy" to little attention in 2014.
Shane McAnally signed him to SMACK/RareSpark in 2016, leading him to release two EPs --
8Tracks, Vol. 1: Good Shit and
8Tracks, Vol. 2: Break the Internet -- that year.
Hayes landed a contract with Monument in 2017, which released "You Broke Up with Me" that year. The song became a hit, earning gold certification and setting up the release of the full-length
boom. in December 2017. The album debuted at number six on the Top Country Albums chart, and peaked at number 37 on the Billboard 200.
Boom didn't generate another big hit and it took
Hayes a little while to climb back up the charts. The nostalgic "90's Country" didn't crack the Top 40 in 2018, nor did the sentimental "Don't Let Her" -- pulled from 8Tracks (Vol. 3): Black Sheep, a belated sequel to his 2016 EPs -- in 2019; the 2020 single "Trash My Heart" didn't chart either.
Hayes finally returned to the charts in 2021 when "Fancy Like" made it to number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart, setting the stage for the June release of his EP Country Stuff.
Hayes expanded the EP into
Country Stuff the Album, which appeared in January 2022, after "U Gurl" and "AA" became sequel singles to "Fancy Like." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine