Introducing: Waylon

Waylon, a name that I've written about before. Yet also a name that not many people know about. Hopefully after today a few more people will know his name and most importantly, his music. Let me introduce you real quick.

Waylon is a Dutch singer who got his stage name from his idol Waylon Jennings, a well known American country singer. From a young age he was inspired by country music. In 2001 he even lived and worked in America, performing with Waylon Jennings. When Jennings passed away Waylon returned home to the Netherlands.

In 2008 he got his breakthrough on Holland's Got Talent, auditioning with 'It's a Man's Man's World' by James Brown. He made it to the finals where he ended up in second place. That was the start of his career. He got a record deal with Motown and released his first single Wicked Way.

Then in 2014, after releasing several solo records he joined forces with fellow Dutch singer Ilse DeLange and together they became The Common Linnets. Under that name they participated in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. They ended up in second place behind Conchita Wurst from Austria. Soon after Eurovision, Waylon made the decision to leave The Common Linnets and go back to his solo career. In 2016 he became a coach on the seventh season of The Voice Of Holland.

Now let's continue and play some music, cause that's why we're here. Waylon is known for a varying style of music and his amazing voice. So you are in for a real treat.

The moment that started it all. Waylon's audition for Holland's Got Talent. I don't think I need to add much here. Everyone with ears can hear he has a golden voice. This the way to nail your audition, because he nailed it big time. From what you will see later you can clearly see he knows what fits his voice well.

After Holland's Got Talent Waylon released his first single called Wicked Way. With that he got to be known as soul singerfor the public. Even though his roots were in country music. But if you listen to his album you can still hear the country influence is some of the album tracks. Wicked Way is a very catchy soulful track that is sure to get everbody dancing. It has become a classic and it's the song that pretty much everyone familar with Waylon knows.

In 2011 Waylon released his second album titled After All. The Escapist is the lead single of the album. It's a another really catchy tune, maybe a little more pop than wicked Way. But still a great song. Vocal wise this one deserves an award cause it's quite a high one to sing. If I'm not mistaken the entire chorus is sung in a head voice, but I'm not a vocal coach or have any knowledge of that. So don't hold me to it and please correct me if I'm wrong. The point is that it's not exactly an easy song to sing, so I think that deserves some recognition.

After leaving The Common Linnets, Waylon went back his solo career. For his third album went back to the music he came from, Country. This resulted in a fantastic album that, in my humble opinion, deserves a bit more recognition than it has gotten. This feels a bit more genuine, it just really fits. That's something you can tell. Love Drunk is one of the singles of the album, which is called Heaven After Midnight. While still catchy this song seems a little darker than what we've heard before. The video covers the vibe of the song perfectly. It's catchy, but dark, a little hazy, maybe a hint of dangerous as well. A great song of a great album.

Last year Waylon cooperated with the Dutch late night talkshow RTL Late Night on a special project. Over the course of several months he talked about several genres of music, country, blues, reggae, rock and more were all discussed. For each genre Waylon created a song inspired by that genre and in some cases a certain artist from that genre. These songs were all collected together on an album that was released near the end of 2016, called Seeds. One of the songs from the album is Our Song which is clearly a disco inspired song. It's fun, it's funky, you can dance to it. The song sounds like could have come straight from the disco era. The album Seeds truly proves what a chameleon Waylon truly is. He doesn't need to be pinned down in one genre, he can do (almost) all. It takes great skill and understanding of music to do such a thing and pull it off. Waylon has proven that he has what it takes Our Song is one of eight songs to prove that. But really he already proved it right at the start of his career when he became a soul artist despite his country roots.

Besides writing great original songs Waylon also does many great covers. I'm always a bit skeptical about covers, cause they don't always turn out good. But with Waylon they almost always do in my opinion. So far I've only disliked one of his covers, which is quite unusual for me. Take a look wioth me at some of my favorite covers that he has done.

I've shown this cover of the Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is to several people and I haven't met anyone so far that doesn't like this. I alone must have watched this video at least fifty times by now and I'm still obsessed with it. This immediately proves why Waylon is such a great singer, his voice is so strong and powerful, that little bit of a rasp just add to the rawness. If you pay attention the people around him at the table and in the crowd you can see how in awe everyone is of him. I still get tears of happiness in my eyes when I watch it. I feel a sense of pride when I see the guy at the two minute mark smiling. Cause I'm him, every time. I could probably keep rambling for another hour over how good this is, but I will just let the music do the talking. That says more than my words ever could.

Who knew Kiss could sound so country! Well it can if Waylon takes the song and runs with it. I love when an artist takes a song and gives it an original twist. It reminds me of when Chris Cornell covered Billie Jean. Or when Johnny Cash covered Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. I Was Made For Loving You is a classic, there's no doubt about that. Personally I always find it a bit cheesy, which is also a danger that comes with a classic song. Personally it's not a song I would play for my own listening pleasure. But this version by Waylon I could play every day, that's how much I like it.

Michael Jackson is often an artist that stands on his own. It's a legend and you don't mess with that unless you're really good. Well Waylon is really good and his cover is really good. It's true to the original and it's just vocally really strong as usual. He knows how to handle a classic with respect and yet make it your own without making it sound like he's doing karaoke. If possible he might give the song even more soul than the original by Michael Jackson. I realise that is a controversial thing to say, so that's up to you personally to decide.

This was my introduction to Waylon, I hope this gave you some isnight into Waylon and his music. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of his music.