From the first time I heard the rhythmic pop/rock songs like those written and recorded by artists like The Script and Kris Allen, you know, the ones that mix fast, melodic verses with strong ear-candy choruses, I’ve thought that mainstream country music could use some of that in a country-pop style and now here Walker Hayes with such a song in “Why Wait For Summer.”

While the song does have those rhythmic spit-fire lines in the verses, the song gets lost in the chorus a bit, where it turns out to be something sounding more like an old Billy Dean single and less like the charming song that Walker Hayes gave us with “Pants” and the other interesting songs on his EP.   His voice is certainly strong enough to hit a homerun out of the park on rhythmic song like “Live Like We’re Dying” (Allen’s song) but somehow the production mix here loses me. 

This isn’t to say that I don’t like “Why Wait For Summer,” because I do.  It’s just that I feel there is a bit of a disconnect between the rhythmic verses and the processed wall-of-sound production in the chorus that loses much of Walker Hayes individualistic charm.  Because of that, I can’t say that “Why Wait For Summer” will be an out of the box super smash hit for Walker but it’s possible that radio will hear the elements of this song, which he co-wrote with Fred Wilhelm and turn it into a gigantic hit.   I’ve certainly been wrong before and with a talent as strong as Walker Hayes (who we selected as one of our Ones to Watch in 2011), I hope that is the case here.

Listen: "Why Wait For Summer"