Hayden at the Turf Club, St Paul (13 June 2015)

Setlist Hey Love Rainy Saturday The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees Motel Nowhere We Cannot Go Home by Saturday Worthy of Your Esteem Where & When Let's Break Up Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover) solo No Happy Birthday Bad as They Get Almost Everything Bass Song Trees Lounge Dynamite Walls Read More Hayden Leading up to Valentine's Day, Hayden shared the title track, "Hey Love", from the forthcoming Arts & Crafts release, Hey Love, over at Soundcloud....

Hayden Desser, the Canadian musician who performs under the name Hayden, played at The Turf Club in St. Paul on Saturday night, June 13th. Touring in support of his new album, Hey Love, he and his three piece band played songs from throughout his career during his 100 minute set.

Setlist

He opened with the title track of Hey Love, and played two more songs from that album during the show, including a solo acoustic version of “No Happy Birthday.” He played one song each from his two albums of the 1990’s, Everything I Long For and The Closer I Get. The song, “Bad as They Get,” from the former, was also played solo acoustic. He played two songs from his third album, Skyscraper National Park, and one from his fourth studio album, Elk-Lake Serenade. He played two from In Field and Town, one from The Place Where We Lived, and three from his 2013 album Us Alone. He also performed a cover of “one of the best songs of the 80’s,” Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” And he ended the show with an unamplified song performed off the stage, among the audience.

vital, moving, and at times, beautiful

It’s been nearly 20 years since the release of his first album, and Hayden still manages to make a personal connection with the audience. There were veterans in the audience who had seen him many times, and a few who were first discovering him, but the entire audience seemed into it. I can’t recall a moment of conversation intruding on the performance, even in Hayden’s quietest moments. And that’s unusual for a small venue with a bar right there. He may not be a star, not in Minnesota anyway, but he knows how to hold the audience’s interest and put on a good show. And his music remains vital, moving, and at times, beautiful.

The opener was Ryan Holweger, a local musician playing with that particular 4 piece band for the first time. I was told that his previous performances have been solo. Despite that, they sounded tight. They played a 35 minute set of rootsy Americana, including a cover of Kenny Roger’s “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.”

Hayden's remaining tour dates:

06/18 Philadelphia PA - World Cafe Live*
06/19 New York NY - Irving Plaza*

* w/ Bahamas

robert ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ itunes.apple.com