After The Voice

A grand start to 2015 for Craig Wayne Boyd

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Craig Wayne Boyd with Taylor Brashears, DaNica Shirey and Sugar Joans in what he called his favorite performance of Season 7. (NBC Photo)

Craig Wayne Boyd with Taylor Brashears, DaNica Shirey and Sugar Joans in what he called his favorite performance of Season 7. (NBC Photo)

Season 7 Voice winner Craig Wayne Boyd will kick off 2015 in grand style.

Number one country single in tow, he’ll make his Grand Ole Opry debut on Saturday at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

He’ll be in great company. Also performing that night: country legend Bill Anderson, Larry Gaitlin and Lauren Alaina.

Boyd has been on something of a whirlwind tour after coming out on top among a talented Season 7 cast, appearing on Today, The Tonight Show and Ellen.

He also celebrated his birthday (36th, I think) on Wednesday with his new Voice single, “My Baby’s Got a Smile on Her Face” sitting at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Digital Singles chart.

That puts Craig Wayne in pretty rare company. The only other country artist to debut at number one on the Hot Country Singles chart: Garth Brooks with “More Than a Memory” in 2007.

Not too shabby for a guy who told the press after his Voice victory that he contemplated quitting music at one point because it simply wasn’t paying his bills.

“I remember a little more than a year ago, sitting in a pickup outside a club after I had played to basically no one and talking to my drummer and saying, ‘Listen, I may have to quit … I’m losing my house. I lost my pickup.’ I didn’t know what I was going to do. And him telling me, ‘Dude, you can’t do that.'”

The very next day, he says, he received an email invitation to audition for The Voice.

Perhaps the best news for his fans: Craig Wayne is promising new music soon, saying he’ll start work on an album early in 2015 in response to Tweets from his fans.

He’s been taking time out of his busy schedule to answer a series of other questions on Twitter as well, telling us that he’s been singing since age 4 and his favorite former Voice winner was Will Champlin.

His favorite Voice performance?

“Prob the bringback tune,” Boyd writes.

That would be his version of “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” also featuring Taylor Brashears, Sugar Joans and York’s own DaNica Shirey.

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2 Comments

  1. June January 6, 2015 at 8:15 pm -  Reply

    Love all your music, but possibly after The Old Rugged Cross, I love The Whisky audition. My daughter says she has to raise her hand in praise as she is driving, listening to The Old Rugged Cross on her iphone. Be Happy; Enjoy; You have earned it! June

  2. June January 6, 2015 at 8:18 pm -  Reply

    This is my very first comment, so it can’t already have been said by me!!

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