Listening to ... Rodney Hayden: "Down The Road"

Rodney Hayden is a young country music artist from Pleasanton, Texas who just produced his third CD called, "Down The Road". This followed his first two efforts with "The Real Thing" and "Living The Good Life", which featured Rodney's songwriting on 15 of the combined 22 songs.

On "Down The Road", which hit the streets, Tuesday, May 1, Hayden wrote or co-wrote all 11 songs. (I would put him, as a lyricist, in the same class as Phil Vassar.)

We first met Rodney when he played at the State Fair of Texas before Alan Jackson played. We bought his first CD, "The Real Thing," and he took a picture with Waverly and autographed the CD for her. The title cut of his first CD, "The Real Thing", was the inspiration for George Strait - via legendary producer Tony Brown - to include it on one of his CD's and release it as a single.

I've seen Rodney play in person a number of times including at Puffabelly's in Old Town Spring as well as the Washington County Fair in Brenham and at three (3) honky tonks, one each in Bryan, Webster and San Marcos. The one night in Webster, I bought his second CD and he signed it, "To Waverly, Missed You Tonight!"

When I pre-ordered his current CD, he sent it with the following note on the CD cover, "To Waverly, Thanks For The Years Of Support. Enjoy."

He's supposed to play the "Big Texas Dancehall" in Webster, which is where I believe I saw him once before, on Thursday night. If you like excellent country music, it would be worth going to see him - and heck, you might even see me there!

On a much more important note, though, Waverly tonight at her middle school end-of-year choir performance sang Carrie Underwood's "Don't Forget To Remember Me." She was the only sixth grader to sing a solo. (There was another sixth grader that was part of a quartet.) Waverly also was named the outstanding student of her sixth grade choir class. (That makes three end of the year awards for her!)

Of course, the song is about a daughter going out on her own and contains a reference to a phone conversation with her mother. There's a line that has the daughter telling her Mom to .... "make sure you tell Daddy that I'm still his little girl..." (Well, of course, when Waverly sang that line .... this Daddy started to tear up!)