LISTEN: Walker Hayes “AA”

On the heels of his hit “Fancy Like” reaching number one at country radio, Walker Hayes releases his next single “AA” and announces his forthcoming album, Country Stuff The Album.

Country Stuff The Album will include “Fancy Like” as well as previously released “U Gurl,” along with “AA” and 10 other tracks, including Hayes’ collaborations with Carly Pearce, Jake Owen, and Lori McKenna, and a re-imagined version of “Craig” featuring MercyMe.

Country Stuff The Album is available everywhere on January 21, 2022. As always with Hayes’ music, each track on the project will be uniquely his, and share a range of emotion from nostalgia and pain to joy and good old fashion fun.

“I’ve been waiting so long to put out a project like this,” says Hayes. “It has everything I love from the fun of ‘Fancy Like’ to the more personal lyrics in ‘AA.’ As an artist, it’s such a unique thing to be able to share all the different versions of you in a project, and that’s really what I tried to do here.”

The new single “AA” was written by Hayes with Multi-GRAMMY Award Winner Shane McAnally and Luke Laird and produced by “Fancy Like” collaborator Joe Thibodeau and McAnally. The song taps into all the things fans love about “Fancy Like,” but this time, brings in Hayes’ deeper side. True to form, Hayes sings about the experiences of everyday Americans, with “AA” hitting on his anxieties as a dad, his love for his wife Laney, and his own journey with sobriety. He sings:

AND I’M JUST TRYNA KEEP MY DAUGHTERS OFF THE POLE
AND MY SONS OUT OF JAIL
TRYNA GET TO CHURCH SO I DON’T GO TO HELL
I’M JUST TRYNA KEEP MY WIFE FROM FIGURING OUT
THAT I MARRIED UP AND SHE MARRIED WAY WAY DOWN
IN ALABAMA WHERE THEY LOVE NICK SABAN
TRYNA WRITE A SONG THE LOCAL COUNTRY STATION WILL PLAY
HEY I’M JUST TRYNA STAY OUT OF AA

“At the end of the day, we are all just doing the best we can,” says Hayes about the track, “and what I really mean to say with this song is just that I’m trying to stay the course. I’ve struggled with alcohol abuse and sometimes I wish I didn’t need AA, but I do. I think a lot of people can relate to that. I’m just trying to be the best dad and husband I can be. It’s not easy all the time, but my wife smiles a lot and my kids are growing up with more than I had, and that’s a really good thing.”