WARD HAYDEN AND THE OUTLIERS

The story of “Little by Little,” the new album by Ward Hayden & The Outliers, began like so many Bruce Springsteen songs do: in a car with the radio on, hurtling down a highway, headed for distant destinations. Except that instead of one of Hayden’s longtime favorites like Hank Williams taking him on a journey through the airwaves, it was a voice whose sour rhetoric rubbed him the wrong way and ultimately inspired action.

“It was born from something negative,” concedes Hayden, a rueful tinge shading his words as he relates the story. It all started when he and his band were driving to a gig in the heartland of America a couple of years back. “The person being interviewed on the radio was someone who rose to fame in a Massachusetts hard rock band in the ‘90s who then did the classic thing of turning to country for the late stage of his career,” says the Outliers’ singer-songwriter. “And he was telling his audience, his fans, not to listen to Bruce Springsteen. And although I don’t feel I’m a very angry or hotheaded person, my initial reaction was disbelief that anyone would say that, or disavow one of the most meaningful collections of songwriting and work, and do such a disservice to their own audience just because they didn’t completely align with a few things Springsteen had said away from the stage. It felt like an exploitation of our differences, and he was using a meaningful and significant generational touchstone in Springsteen to further divide people and profiteer from negative sensationalism.”

After all, with a legendary career in music that at this point spans more than half a century’s worth of creating quintessentially American tales of small-town striving and big-time heartbreak, Springsteen, Hayden says, is “a universal tie that binds, someone who transcends age and country and generations. Everywhere we go, everywhere we’ve toured around the world, his name comes up. And I know how much his music has meant to me.”

Hayden knew what he had to do to counteract the negative: Offer a balance to the negative bluster by working resolutely to create a positive reaction with Bruce’s music as the vehicle. That small but symbolic act of appreciation and resistance initially came in the form of recording and releasing a trio of Springsteen songs: “Glory Days,” “Brilliant Disguise,” and “Dancing in the Dark.” Little did the band know the gesture would be a creative catalyst and roadmap for the foreseeable future. “What ended up happening was” – here Hayden brightens with a broad grin – “we couldn’t stop, and the project took on a life of its own. We literally went nuts. It was too much fun.”

So much so that Hayden and The Outliers wound up with a clutch of 16 finished Springsteen songs, all interpreted Outliers-style, that they decided to split down the middle into two separate, yet thematically linked albums. Their respective release dates will likely coincide with the Outliers always-busy touring schedule so fans will have fresh, new music to latch onto live and on record. “Little by Little” drops first on April 18th, with the second installment, “Piece by Piece” (both titles are gleaned from Springsteen’s lyrics to “Racing In The Street”) due later this year, right around the time the band heads for Europe & Scandinavia.

“We could have done 16 more songs, but we started to run out of money,” Ward says with a laugh. “So we had to pump the brakes at some point!” On top of that, the sessions proved so fertile that the band also came away with an entire album’s worth of brand-new original Outliers’ compositions that will also see the light of day at some later date. “Little by Little” is comprised of an eclectic mix of cherished chestnuts and rare gems (such as the previously unreleased “County Fair,” a slice-of-life studio outtake that later appeared on Springsteen’s “Essentials” collection). But if you’re under the impression that these guys merely fired up a greatest hits karaoke machine, you’d better think again.

As any fan of this prolific Massachusetts-born band knows, whether you’re a newcomer or whether you first heard Hayden when he first arrived on the Boston scene as the charismatic leader of the multi-Boston Music Award-winning outfit Girls Guns & Glory, the music on “Little by Little” is outfitted in the inimitable Outliers’ style. That is to say, with a marvelously effective, updated dose of Country & Western flavor; tasty instrumental flourishes thanks to Tyler Marshall’s and Sam Crawford’s restrained-yet-ripping guitar licks (the latter also employs lap steel guitar). And a supple rhythm section supplied by bass player-multi-instrumentalist Greg Hall (who co-produced the album with Hayden) and drummer-percussionist Patrick Brown, plus a select handful of the Outliers musical collaborators who lent their talents to this recording. All told, the musicianship here is so comfortably tight you could bounce a jukebox quarter off of it – that is, if jukeboxes still took quarters.

Of course, the sonic package is topped off by the Outliers’ calling card and ace-in-the-hole: Hayden’s emotionally resonant, supremely silken vocals. It’s a voice that, in the span of a verse or a moment, can effortlessly summon the highest of spirits or sink the saddest of hearts. And as if that wasn’t enough to draw listeners in, for “Little by Little,” Hayden even taught himself to play harmonica, which you can hear augment the wistful, twin elegies of “Used Cars” and “Promised Land,” the latter of which is slated to be the album’s first single. Taken together, what the whole shebang sounds and feels like, unmistakably, is nobody but Ward Hayden & the Outliers.

The Fallout Shelter is an all ages performance venue welcoming worldwide, world class music in an intimate setting. Our studio audience attends to watch the creation and production of the music television series The Extended Play Sessions. The Fallout Shelter events are immersive experiences for both audience and performers alike...a live music experience like no other. We are fully ADA compliant and have wheelchair access. We have a wide selection of beer and wine for your adult beverage pleasures and each show comes with a free commemorative event poster. Our doors open at 6PM. Seating is General Admission. We recommend you arrive at the time the doors open.