Exclusive: 1 on 1 with the king of financial country music

Hazard is a native of New York who bills himself as the son of a coal miner daddy and a mama who was a compliance director at Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter. On Thursday he unleashed 2 new bangers, "That's Seigniorage" and "The Fed is Watching the Market," as well as a favorite from his 2018 opus "Tough Market" backed up by his son Merle Jr. (aka David Shayne) on guitar.

Behind the scenes: He's an asset manager, dealing mainly in U.S. equities at his firm Shayne & Co., LLC overseeing portfolios for around 100 client accounts.

• "There's an audience for [my music]," Hazard said during a 1-on-1 exclusive with Axios, "but I'm not sure it's a sufficiently big, paying audience to really make this a career."

Background: He got his start in finance at brokerage firm Paine Webber as a "number-crunching analyst in the mergers group," but eventually moved to Nashville, where he was able to combine his love for country and finance.

• "Everything I sing about in the songs ... they're all real issues to me."

Fun fact: Hazard now records at Compass Sound Studios on Nashville's Music Row, the former home of Glaser Brothers Production, aka Hillbilly Central, "where the likes of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman and Tompall Glaser gave rise to country music’s 'Outlaw' movement," according to the studio's website.

The intrigue: While his songs generally focus on high-level macroeconomic themes like central banking, GDP growth and interest rate policy, his heart is in value investing — as a Warren Buffett devotee he specializes in company valuations and stock picking.

Go deeper: Who would’ve thought a bluegrass spoof of atonal music would take off on YouTube? (WashPost)

Editor's note: This article has been changed to reflect the name of Shayne's firm, Shane & Co, LLC rather than Shayne & Co. Investment Management, and to state that only one song performed was from his "Tough Market" album.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker