Hayden Baker Combines Excellent Lead Guitar With Symphonic Texas Country

SAN ANGELO, TX — Hayden Baker will perform for the first time in San Angelo on Friday, Oct. 24, at the Arc Light Bar & Grill inside the Clarion Hotel, 441 Rio Concho Dr. Baker's sound is a cross between the soaring melodies of Texas country music sensation Cody Johnson and the superb lead guitar skills of a younger Brad Paisley. We call it symphonic country.

Baker, who picked up the guitar in grade school, said he was inspired by watching Brad Paisley shred the guitar at Rodeo Houston one year. While he continued to learn guitar licks, his other passion was 6A Katy Tiger football. He was on the team from 2011 to 2015 under Texas Football Hall of Fame inductee Coach Gary Joseph, competing for the state championships four times in a row. For two of those championships, Baker's Tigers won. Baker was also an accomplished pitcher in baseball, pursuing his dream of the big leagues in junior college before losing his ability to pitch his fastest ball due to an injury. That brought him back to music.

"I always wanted to know how to play the lead parts back then and avoided simply strumming the guitar," he said. With some technical guitar skills already developed, Baker enrolled in a jazz guitar course at Angelina Junior College while attending for baseball. It was in that course at the small junior college that Baker brought it all together, learning not just how to shred the instrument like he saw Paisley do years ago, but the music theory behind why a guitar solo is great.

After hanging up his cleats, Baker transferred to his father's alma mater, Texas A&M University in College Station, to finish his degree. Aggieland offered many opportunities to hone his music during his off time, and Baker took advantage of them. He said he became serious about Texas country music, writing songs and performing. He opened for Wade Bowen and once for Willie Nelson.

After college, Baker dedicated his time to the music business. He said he prefers a sound that is full production, not stripped-down acoustic country music from the Appalachian Mountains and eastward. Work has been steady, but he's still hoping his hard work meets big opportunity.

He's ready. After some early small successes, he moved to Nashville and wrote music with Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn.

"Ronnie told me to stop publishing songs until I learned to write even better songs," Baker explained.

With Dunn, Baker co-wrote several songs that have made it onto records, one of them for Dunn himself that will soon be released. Other artists who have recorded his co-written music include David Lewis and Trent Cowie. In all, Baker took a one-year hiatus from performing and publishing music to hone his skills and, as he explained, "reset the table."

The first single he released after the hiatus in 2022 was "At Least I'm Here," a song that has 650,000 spins on Spotify—a good sign of its popularity. Since then, he has released two albums and a multitude of singles. In all, Baker has published 50 original songs.

"Letting You Go" on his latest record, Alive & Well, is one of Baker's favorites. "A really emotional song to sing," he said. It sounds like a George Strait standard, with the chorus lyrics: "I just called to let you know I'm letting you go..."

Baker also published a gospel song, "Walk With Jesus," on his 2024 record Barely Getting By. "It can get pretty heavy," Baker admitted.

Baker honored his fiancée with "We Should Do This More Often," a song that graduates from dancing with his wife-to-be under street lights when they first met to rekindling the early euphoria by dancing to a familiar song under the kitchen lights at home.