Credit: Lydia Dall / Dall House Design

Lexie Hayden’s First Full-Length Album, Counting Rainbows

Donna Block
6 min readOct 25, 2024

Photo Credit: Cait McNaney

Virginia-born. Where would you go if you had a free weekend in your hometown?

My parents bought a cabin in the Shenandoah Valley back in 2022 and it’s our new little slice of heaven. We spend all our time at the cabin on my weekends at home in Virginia now. We go hiking, thrifting, have bonfires, drink at the local breweries and watch the sunset over the mountains in the evenings.

Inspiration, Dolly Parton, Maren Morris, and Kacey Musgraves. The Brothers Osborne. What is your favorite song of theirs to perform live and why?

Dolly Parton- “9 to 5” It’s just a classic. It gets everyone singing along and it’s always fun.

Maren Morris- “80’s Mercedes” It’s one of those songs I wish I wrote. It grooves in a way that is so fun to play live.

Kacey Musgraves- “Dime Store Cowgirl” This song just makes me so happy and feels like home for some reason.

Brothers Osborne- “Stay A Little Longer” One of my favorite songs of all time. Lyrically, melodically, all of it.

Honesty. Writing personal songs whose lyrics resonate with listeners. Thinking of such songs by other artists, which have been an inspiration for your songwriting?

Some of the first few songs that come to mind are “Slow Burn” by Kacey Musgraves, “I Wish I Was” or “Once” by Maren Morris and “21 Summer” by Brothers Osborne. Those are all songs that have so much honesty and vulnerability in them; it’s impossible to believe they were written based on anything but personal experiences.

Friends and family. “My Bar,” co-writing Priscilla Block’s Top 25 single. Met while working at The Listening Room. Writing a song for your mom, “Just Like You.” How do friends and family influence your writing?

My friends and family influence my writing more and more as I get older. I actually reference my mom in many songs, and my mom loves to point out how much I talk about her in my music. I write so honestly and so many of my stories are just from personal experience, so it’s only natural to take influence from the people closest to me.

“One of my favorite parts of being a songwriter and an artist is the moment you hear a song fully recorded for the first time.” Influenced by the music on Daisy Jones and The Six. It made you feel something. Started to write channeling the 70s & 80s and all your heroes, including Fleetwood Mac and Sheryl Crow. How do you make sure to include today’s country sound in the new music?

I think it’s relatively easy to keep today’s country sound in the new music when you’re still collaborating with so many different people. I tracked the first six songs with my producers Derek George and Julian King and then ended up adding Jess Grommet, Alex Kiel, Jason Nix and Darren Rayl as producers as I continued writing songs for the album way past our recording date. Every one of them has been in Nashville for 10+ years and they each bring a different flare and sound to the songs. I’ve also been writing, performing and recording in Nashville for almost ten years, so I feel very immersed in the country music scene.

Independent artist. Nine years in Music City. “Every day is a work in progress.” What are some of your 2025 goals?

My biggest goal for 2025 is getting back on the road and touring. I want to travel and see new places, bigger venues and collaborate with more artists on the road. I’ve been writing and recording so much this year and I just wanna get out there and play these songs. Besides that, I want to start writing for another project, of course. I’m always ready to start creating the next thing.

Played on radio, The Bobby Bones Show. Can you share how it felt to hear your song on the radio the first time?

The first original song I heard of mine on national radio was “Sad Songs” in 2020, off my EP, “You Heard Right.” My friends and I all got together and parked our cars on the street and blasted the radios as loud as we could when my song came out. It’s a moment you never forget and a high I can’t explain. Just knowing that anyone out there in the country is listening to your song for the first time at the same time as you is the coolest feeling in the world.

Playing in London. Which international venues are on your bucket list?

After visiting London and playing over there for the first time, it’s a big goal of mine to play the C2C Festival! The UK is full of incredible country music fans and it’s definitely on my bucket list to play the biggest country music festival in the UK. I also heard there’s a Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow and that’s on my list as well. I want to see Scotland!

“High Enough.” Features Jason Nix, whom you’ve worked with since 2018. Co-written with Nix, Alex Kiel, and Andrea Dozzi. Captures the euphoric rush that comes with being so deeply infatuated that nothing else compares. Video filmed by Cait McNaney in Hartsville, Tennessee. How did McNaney capture the essence of the ‘rush’ in the video?

I was inspired to make this particular type of live performance video after watching Daisy Jones and The Six! I really wanted Jason and I to face each other and sing into one microphone so it felt just as intimate as the song did. Jason and I have so much chemistry together in the writing room and on stage, it was easy. The sun glowing and setting in the background is one of my favorite parts of this video. To me, it fits the feeling of the song perfectly.

Debut full-length album, Counting Rainbows.

Release party, at Analog Nashville, included ‘fun surprises.’

Cover artwork. How does the artwork represent the album’s theme?

The artwork took a lot of prepping and planning! I knew I wanted to incorporate rainbows (of course) but I wanted to do it in a non-cheesy way. My friend Raina ended up with these huge wooden rainbows leftover from another shoot and let me paint them for the album cover. I spent a whole day painting these rainbows (that were taller than me!) with my photographer, Cait McNaney. We then staged a bunch of colored “junk” around me and in front of the rainbows, which are resting on a chain link fence with the sunrise coming through behind them. It’s supposed to represent how we’re all a work in progress and perfection is overrated. There’s beauty in everything around you if you just choose to look for it.

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