For The Uninitiated: This twenty-one-year-old country phenom was nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Grammys, but he ain’t really new. Hayes joined his first band at four and performed with Hank Williams Jr. and Charlie Daniels before graduating elementary school. For his self-titled major-label debut, he wrote or co-wrote all the songs, served as coproducer, and played more than thirty instruments. The album spawned three massive country-radio hits, and he’s logged more than two hundred dates a year on the road.

On Growing Up Country: “Every demo I do has a mandolin or resonator on it — some element of the bluegrass or classic country world that I grew up listening to and that first drew me in. And then I always try to find somewhere for a bluesy guitar sound, because that’s also what I love. Musically, I’m always finding my way home.”

On Playing Live: “The stage is my comfort zone, and playing live is what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s why I want to do two hundred dates a year. I wouldn’t feel that way if I were nervous onstage. These days, we play a two-and-a-half-hour headlining show. We have a song with a twenty-minute outro on it. Things evolve and I love that.”

Tell Us More About That: “Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There’s a connection because there’s a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.”

What He’s Listening To: MercyMe, “So Long Self”; Lori McKenna, “Ladders and Parachutes.”

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