From Austin To West Texas, Rodney Hayden Is Just Down The Road

One of the reasons I write on The 9513 is it gives me a chance to share some of the artists I enjoy listening to and shed some light on those guys in the trenches who might not be getting the credit they deserve. Recently one of those artists for me has been Rodney Hayden. His third album, Down the Road, has found itself in regular rotation in my CD player since its release on May 8th; and it seems lately that wherever my CD travels with me, from right here in Austin all the way to Fort Davis in West Texas, I find Hayden performing live as well.

At the beginning of each month I create a calendar chalk full of artists that I want to see live in and around the Austin area, and when any specific date rolls around with one of those performances I try my hardest to persuade my girlfriend to attend with me. She’s a little apprehensive about seeing new people perform because I like to stay the entire show, even if they suck, and to her it’s torture. In the middle of June I got lucky enough to get her out to one of Hayden’s concerts at Midnight Rodeo and he took over from there. She liked him enough to agree to add him to her short list of approved artists (Randy Rogers Band and Roger Creager are the other approved artists).

A couple of weeks after that we made the annual trek to the 54th Watermelon Thump held in Luling, TX to catch Kevin Fowler for the first time. Luckily, during the day they put on a couple of acoustic sets. The first consisted of Josh Grider, Mike Sanford, Robby Abel, and Rodney Hayden. Josh Grider played some songs from his upcoming album, Million Miles To Go; I have the feeling it’s going to be something special (listen to “Crazy Like You” on his MySpace). Hayden got to play a few of his songs as well, and he made quite an impression on the rest of the audience. One of the crowd favorites seems to be “Whoever Wrote This Song”, or maybe I just perceive it as a crowd favorite because I enjoy it so much myself.

Then, last weekend my girlfriend and I made the seven hour drive to Fort Davis for her family reunion. Her parents informed us that there were going to be some country performances in town throughout the weekend, so I hopped on the town’s website to find out who, and much to my surprise it was Rodney Hayden. We made the attempt to catch his Saturday show, right after we got done with our horseback ride through Prude Ranch, but couldn’t find him despite Fort Davis being a rather small town. It was a minor disappointment, but we had his albums to accompany us for our long trip home–and to whichever small venue Hayden is playing down the road.