With his 10-track album, Boom slated for release in just over a month, Walker Hayes the talented country artist played to a packed NYC venue last night. The Alabama native and father of six gives a unique spin to the country genre, combining spoken word and song.  While some artists in the genre are lacing their latest hits with pop or R&B, Hayes infuses his clever lyrics with hip-hop to create something new.

Although this wasn’t his first show in the big apple, Hayes was grateful to be back again, this time with a full band. He played songs off his 8tracks Vol. 1 including “Beautiful”, “Dollar Store” and his breakout radio hit “You Broke Up With Me”, as well as “Beckett”, “Break the Internet” and “Your Girlfriend Does” off of his second installment of his 8tracks.

Two highlights of the night included with Hayes took a moment to slow things down and tell a story about life before his newly found fame.  Explaining that before his record deal with Monument Records, he was working the morning shift at Costco, his car was falling apart and he didn’t have the money to fix it. Using his daughter’s thumbtacks to hold up the material of the roof and wondering if he should continue to pursue his dreams of a music career, he wrote “Lela’s Stars”.

Several times throughout the night, Hayes thanked the audience for being there, for knowing his lyrics and for singing them back to him.  As a surprise to the fans, Nicolle Galyon, number one hit songwriter joined Hayes on stage to sing the chorus of the song they wrote together “Halloween”.  The duet was fitting considering the show took place one night before the beloved holiday.

The 60-minute set allowed fans to dig deeper into what Hayes’ brings to the table as an artist and a songwriter.  He is genuine and his lyrics reflect the good and bad parts of his life thus far. Pre-order Boom on iTunes here and automatically get “Beautiful”, “Halloween” and “You Broke Up With Me”.