Walker Hayes embraces Nineties nostalgia with his new single “Nineties Country,” which furthers the trope of lyrics built around the song titles of past hits. But Hayes doesn’t take the lazy route here — while he drops allusions to major hits like George Strait’s “Check Yes or No” and Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” the Alabama songwriter digs deep to include nods to Shenandoah (“The Church on Cumberland Road”) and even Ken Mellons (“Jukebox Junkie”).
Along with the requisite summoning of Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine,” Hayes also cites Joe Diffie’s “John Deere Green,” David Lee Murphy’s “Dust on the Bottle” and, via the “settled for a burger and a grape snow cone” line, Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee.”
Hayes, who released his debut album Boom last year, debuted “Nineties Country” on Good Morning America on Thursday. Running up to the release of the song, Hayes shared a series of photoshopped images of him as George Strait, Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks, along with a video of him performing a medley of Nineties hits.