Hunter Hayes Essentials

Country-music prodigy Hunter Hayes was making records while he was still a child and scoring multiplatinum hits at the age of 20. Sometimes the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer pounds out pulsing pop perfection, as he does on “The One That Got Away.” Sometimes he mixes rock and folk flavors, as on the hard-charging “I Want Crazy,” or slips slinky R&B influences and star-spangled falsetto into sleek, soulful tunes like “One Good Reason.” Whatever the sound, the musical polymath has always been about using his many gifts to speak straight from the heart.