Straight out of Granbury, Texas.
Meet Hayden Phillips, a Texas high school student following in the footsteps of one of country music’s biggest names… no literally following in his footsteps because their vocals are eerily similar. If you listened to this with your eyes closed, I’m not 100% convinced you’d know you weren’t listening to a live version of Zach himself.
Hayden recently took to the competition stage for the Voice of Grandbury to showcase his talents. From the softness of lighter notes, to the growl on certain parts… the lyrical section of the song that is the most similar to me is when he sings the choppy portion:
“You’ve been playin’ your guitar from arenas to the barsSince you were old enough to rhyme a wordBut your face is gettin’ thinner, and you’re prayin’ for the winterAnd I heard you fucked it up with her…”
Pretty impressive to nail some of the vocal intricacies so well. Obviously, he’s going to want to learn to hone in his own voice, but in the meantime, pretty good cover. Who knows… this kid just might be on Zach’s Belting Bronco Sessions someday.
And the original:
