Last month, the music video for “(Breaking Up with) My Hometown” and the lyric video for “Can’t Wake Up,” released. Both songs are originals that hold deep personal meaning to Hayden, a sentiment that bonds all of the 10 tracks together.

“It’s the closest thing I’ve ever done to a concept album,” Ward notes. “I wanted to just recount my experience of growing up in a small town and what it meant and what it took to get out and leave that behind and try to pursue something, chase after something that was and is a dream. I used to joke that my greatest achievement was I got out of here because it was no easy feat.”

South Shore opens with the mission statement of “Write a Song,” followed by observations, memories, and contemplations on the place he hails from, both then and now, on the title track as well as “(Breaking Up with) My Hometown.” Hayden explores such themes as toxic relationships on “Crazy Love,” his place in the world in “Gasoline” and “Things These Days,” and how quickly and constantly things change in “Blink of an Eye. In the wake of a tumultuous time in his life, in “Can’t Wake Up” Ward recounts a prophetic dream he had about the ravages of warfare that chillingly became reality in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Being the father of a two-year-old daughter sparked “Hush,” about a mother offering life lessons to her child. And Ward closes the LP with a philosophical meditation on what’s to come that he wrote for his wife, “The Great Unknown.” It’s all set within the band’s “amber-soaked melodies, tight musicianship, and casual elegance,” as The Boston Globe describes their sound.

Soon after starting his band in his mid-20s, Hayden got out of Scituate to Boston, just up the coast. Known as a great American music city, it proved to be an ideal launching pad for his group. Ward Hayden & The Outliers (formerly known as Girls Guns and Glory) are the only act to win both a Boston Music Award for Act of the Year (as well as with six other BMAs) and legendary Beantown radio station WBCN’s annual Rumble.

The group went on to later win an Independent Artist of the Year at the French Country Music Awards plus an Americana Music Awards nomination for Album of the Year. Playing some 200 dates across America over the last two decades as well as more than a dozen tours of Europe, they’ve won over a loyal following by melding country music’s and rock’n’roll’s finest roots with contemporary authenticity and appeal.

On their musical journey, Ward Hayden & The Outliers – currently Josh Kiggans on drums and percussion, Cody Nilsen on guitar and pedal steel, and Handsome Greg Hall on bass – have cut albums with such noted producers as as Boston studio legend Paul Kolderie (Radiohead, Hole, Warren Zevon, Morphine, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Uncle Tupelo) and roots rock guru Eric Ambel (Nils Lofgren, Marshall Crenshaw, The Bottle Rockets, Blue Mountain). South Shore returns them to recording in Hayden’s Atlantic coastal homeland with producer Rob Loyot, who recorded Ward’s first three albums, and who Hayden feels “might be my musical soulmate.”

Hayden’s career playing his “own brand of American roots music that satisfies like homemade apple pie” (Farmington Valley Times) has had benefits and challenges that he both enjoys. “I had a hankering and a desire to have some adventure and to just get out there and see the country and hopefully see the world. I’ve just been traveling around almost non-stop for pretty much my entire adult life,” Ward concludes. “Once I made the decision to do this, I knew it would be a roller coaster. I was obviously hoping for good things to happen, but it’s been ups and downs. For me, it’s been about hanging in there through all aspects of the ride and whether things are going well or when things get tough, not giving up.”

Ward Hayden & The Outliers on Tour

May

5 – Syracuse, NY – The 443 Social Club

6 – Rochester, NY – Abilene

7 – Columbus, OH – Natalie’s Grandview

9 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

10 – Newport, KY – Southgate House Revival

11 – Lexington, KY – Thursday Night Live

12 – Indianapolis, IN – Duke’s Indy

16 – Richmond, VA – Get Tight Lounge

18 – Thomas, WV – The Purple Fiddle

19 – York, PA – Central Market House

20 – Easton, MD – Stoltz Listening Room

26 – Pembroke, MA – Soundcheck Studios

5/27 – Brownfield, ME – Stone Mountain Arts Center

June

3 – Bethlehem, PA – Godfrey Daniels

4 – Union Dale, PA – Arlo’s Country Store

10 – Newburyport, MA – NBPT Brewing 11th B-day Bash

17 – Cohasset, MA – South Shore Arts Festival

27 – Block Island, RI – Captain Nick’s

July

2 – Marblehead, MA – Marblehead Festival of Arts

3 – Mystic, CT – Blue Mondays Concert Series

11 – Breim, Norway – Stiftinga Norsk Country Treff

14 & 15 – Breide, Norway – Norsk Countrytreff Festival 2023