Driving home from Chudleigh's Farm the other day, I had the MP3 player on shuffle. Back to back we heard Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand" and Hayden's "Bad As They Seem". Hearing these two Canadian artists back to back reminded me of a prediction I made upon hearing Hayden's album Everything I Long For for the first time in '95.
I was calling Hayden out as the next Neil Young. I realize now those expectations were way out of whack, but Hayden was the complete package. His songs had a grungy, folksy flavour, he was a singer-song writer performing locally and his stuff was amazing. He was can't miss, a bonafide super star in the making. He was the second coming of Neil.
Eleven years later, I now regard Hayden as the greatest under achiever in Canadian music history. And it's quite possible he's proud of it. I hit up his Wikipedia page to find out what he's up to. He's apparently working on another album, which will probably be quite good and quite underwhelming, if that's a word. I know it's not because I looked it up.
When I spin Everything I Long For today, I still can't believe he isn't a bigger deal than he is. Sure I'm repeating myself, but the whole thing has me mild and hazy.
