Artist: Hayden Thompson
Album: Hayden Thompson
Year: 2007
Label: Bluelight Records
Order-#: BLR 33132 2

© March 2007 / Bruno Michel

If the established label Bear Family from Germany is taking your songs into their catalogue, you can feel honored as an artist. Still, Hayden Thompson never received his well deserved credits in his home country, the USA. His contract with the legendary Sun Records resulted in only one single. But he kept hangin' on, never gave up and kept touring throughout Europe in recent years. Now Mika Myyryläinen of the finnish label Bluelight Records has published an album with Hayden Thompson.

There are fifteen of Thompson's favorite tracks on the disc, thereof three of his own songs. The covers were penned by such greats as Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Mel Tillis, Ed Bruce or Charlie Rich, just to name a few.

Interesting to listen to are Thompson's own songs. Sixteen Dollars Eighty-Eight Cents tells the story of a roaming guy who'd like to catch a train to Chicago only to find that he can't afford the fare. So, a few songs later, he thinks about his girlfriend back home in Mississippi and tells himself I Wanna Get Home. A classic rockabilly tune of the older days is Drive Me Out Of My Mind.

Thompson's voice reminds you of Waylon Johnny and Elvis - somewhere in between - so get up and listen. [email protected]