Hayden Thompson

Hayden Thompson – Sings Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and… Hayden Thompson

Bluelight Records – BLR 33248 2 [2025]
Big River – Hey Porter – Without Love – Cry Cry Cry – I’m Left You’re Right She’s Gone – I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine – A Mess Of Blues – You’re a Heartbreaker – Honey ‘Cause I Love You – Someday Somewhere Someone Waits For Me – Gone Gone Gone – Boppin’ the Blues – Wanna Get Home – Drive Me Out Of My Mind – Sixteen Dollars Eighty-Eight Cents – Guns – Sixteen Dollars Eighty-Eight Cents – These Boots Are Made for Walking

This compilation gathers tracks previously released by veteran rocker Hayden Thompson, on the albums Hayden Thompson, Standing Tall, Booneville Mississippi Flash/The Time Is Now, Learning the Game, and Rockabilly Rhythm between 1995 and 2016. To make things more interesting, the label had a good idea of giving this compilation the form of a concept album by organizing the track list around the three great pioneers of Rockabilly: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. And to make it even more interesting, many of these tracks (almost the entire section dedicated to Elvis and a powerful hillbilly-rock version of Gone Gone Gone featuring Billy Lee Riley) are previously unreleased. And as if that weren’t enough, the set is rounded out with tracks written by Thompson as well as two rarities recorded on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in 1966.
The first thing that strikes you when listening to this album is Thompson’s voice. To say that the passage of time has been kind to his voice is still far from the truth. It has retained all its richness and even seems to have gained in depth and breadth.
The selection is impeccable, mixing well-known titles with lesser-known tunes such as Without Love (penned by Nick Lowe), which Johnny Cash recorded in 1980 on the album Rockabilly Blues, or Someday Somewhere, a track from Carl Perkins’s Columbia period in the early 1960s but never released at the time.
Some versions are faithful to the originals, while others depart from their models to offer more personal arrangements. Particularly noteworthy are the muscled-up versions of Johnny Cash’s Big River and Hey Porter and a moving, stripped-down version of You’re a Heartbreaker.
Thompson’s four tracks certainly stand up to comparisons with their illustrious colleagues. The magnificent Sixteen Dollars Eighty-Eight Cents, evoking the best of Marty Robbins, alone justifies the purchase of the album. This track, along with a cover of These Boots Are Made For Walking, is one of two bonus tracks recorded on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1966. The sound quality is certainly not optimal, but this minor flaw is more than compensated for by the historical interest, the performance, and the pleasure of hearing these songs live.