If country music is evolving, it is clear that men are leading it, and two of the youngsters just about at the head of the pack are Scotty McCreery and Hunter Hayes.

McCreery, 21, played at Summerfest this past summer while Hayes, 23, is coming to the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Thursday, Nov. 13 for a show that is expected to be a sellout.

If you take a look at the Billboard country charts, only four women are in the top 25, and just two of them – Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert – have any kind of broad-based national appeal or recognition.

It’s a man’s world out there in country, and Hayes stands right at the vanguard of this revolution.

"I’m kind of uncomfortable with that idea of a revolution," Hayes said this week as he was getting set in Albany, N.Y., for the second stop on his new "Storyline" tour. "I’m not part of any revolution. I’m just trying to make the music the best way I know how."

Hayes was a child prodigy in Louisiana and now plays 30 total instruments. He’s a live wire entertainer on stage and a serious songwriter. And in the three years between the release of his first album and the current one "Storyline" that he’s touring in support of, you can see the growth and maturity as a songwriter and producer developing.

With teenage angst songs like "Cry With You," he shows a whole new perspective on life as a man growing into his cowboy boots.

For example, there have been at least 1,000 songs written about bullying, the social dilemma that has penetrated popular culture. Hayes also has one, but his "Invisible" is less about the vicious nature of being bullied and more about how a depth of commitment can make someone an outsider in a world where commitment is not understood. In his case, it was an obsession with music that kept him as a boy on the outskirts of town, and it’s that same obsession that has moved him back into the world as a grown man.

Hayes and his band deliver an electric performance onstage and, unlike so many young acts today, it’s an ever evolving experience, full of spontaneity and new stuff.

"Me, in a show there is definitely stuff that changes," Hayes said. "Some moments that I stick to that I really like, don’t fix what’s not broken, but just by habit, my nature as a human is, ‘Let’s just try something.’ Sometimes I fall flat on my face, but I have fun trying, and the audience comes along with you."

"At a show, there have to be moments when they are hearing the record," Hayes continued. "You owe it to the people who have gone out and bought it and bought tickets to the show. You owe it to them to play the record that they want to hear. You also owe it to the audience to keep it interesting and to show them that you are interested in what you are doing and that you’re not just recreating history."

Part of his history includes a big gig at Summerfest.

"I remember we were on a side stage when Zac Brown was headlining in the big amphitheater," Hayes recalled. "I thought nobody would show up for our show. But man, I was wrong. There were about 8,000 people crammed in there. It was just incredible."

Hayes has a broad experience in musicality and has a wide range of arrows in his producer’s quiver. But he’s not wound up in musical trickery. He understands what it takes to make a great song.

"A song should be written from a journal," Hayes said. "It should be shared as a story because that’s what I know country music to be."

In a world where much of country music could be confused for songs on the pop charts, Hayes seems pretty certain of his identity. Taylor Swift, who just released her latest album "1989," has clearly planted both feet in the world of pop music, but Hayes doesn’t see that happening to him.

"I have a lot of influences in my art," Hayes said, "but rooted and passionately proud of being in the country music genre. Because it’s storytelling. And even sonically, you have things that are obviously influenced by that, but your job as an artist is to create a sound that is your own."

His own sound is obviously created from many things, not the least of which is his ability to play 30 instruments.

"Sure it helps," Hayes said. "You build a song from as many materials as you can find. The palette of your sound should be as broad as can be."

Hayes, like McCreery, doesn’t spend any time thinking about whether they are in the vanguard of some kind of evolution in country music. But people do say that they are the leaders in the voyage that country music is on.

"That’s really not a big deal for me," Hayes said. "When people ask that or say that, the only thing I say is I really appreciate it. Then it’s back to the music."

Hunter Hayes will be at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Thursday, Nov. 13. Ticket information is available here.