Doors 4:00pm • Music 7:30pm

“There’s a sparse poetry in Hank Williams’s lyrics that separates “the Hillbilly Shakespeare” from his fellow jukebox heroes of the ’40s. His was the poetry of the honky-tonk’s quiet men: the last American cowboys, the stoic vets, the post-Depression wallflowers. Men for whom that lonesome whistle blows, who hear robins weep, who dream about mama and never knew daddy. Men whose heart will always fall at the feet of the old flame they pass on the street.

It’s a cowboy poetry that speaks to Ward Hayden — that much is clear from listening to the 34-year-old sing Williams’s tunes.

Hayden doesn’t cover these songs; he shakes with them, almost bleeds them. They roll through him like prayer through a Southern preacher who just happens to sound like a cross between Chris Isaak and Lyle Lovett.

Hayden is the frontman for the Boston-based Ward Hayden and The Outliers, and at this show they’ll be playing tribute to one of their greatest influences, Hank Williams.” ~Lauren Daley, Boston Globe

https://www.wardhaydenandtheoutliers.com/

Tickets: $15 and on sale now at www.abilenebarandlounge.com and tonight at the door