Highways & Heartaches

Highways & Heartaches

If every barroom in the world but one burned down, it's easy to imagine Wade Hayes standing in it long after midnight, belting out hard-hitting, alcohol- and despair-drenched honky-tonk laments like "Life After Lovin' You" and "That's What Honky Tonks Are For" from this fourth album. The Oklahoma-born Hayes possesses a choked-down, throbbing baritone that's delightfully reminiscent of Waylon Jennings. On swaggering barnburners like "What's It Gonna Take," pleading laments like "Goodbye Is the Wrong Way to Go," and his dazzling rendition of "She Used to Say That to Me," this Telecaster-toting cowboy serves up an eerie, compelling hard-country mix of macho nonchalance and painful vulnerability. On "I'm Lonesome Too," which has all the markings of a showstopper, Hayes serves up a tortured, yearning Chris Isaak-style falsetto that showcases yet another winning dimension of his rock-solid talents and stalwart neo-honky-tonk sensibilities. <I>--Bob Allen</I>