Photos by Scott Mayberry – 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.
PARMALEE
