Ron Hayden practically was born with a guitar in his hand.

The Bolingbrook singer and musician took a liking to the instrument at a very young age. "We've got photos of me at 3 or 4 years old fooling around with a guitar, even when I didn't know what I was doing," he said. "To me, it sounded good."

Though he hasn't been able to pursue his love full time, the grown-up Hayden has made a name for himself playing at Chicago-area venues. Ron Hayden and the Hard Times Band plays Saturday night at Arbor Vitae Java & Juice in downtown Naperville.

Hayden sang and played guitar on and off throughout middle school and high school. But once he graduated, he said, he decided to pursue a "more steady form of employment" - working as a data processor.

In 1990, a friend who worked for a Chicago bar desperately needed a new act for a weekday show and asked Hayden - who had been dabbling with guitar again - to perform.

Hayden didn't even have a band, but he said yes.

Since then, Hayden's musical career has been a blur. He assembled a group of musicians he knew, they played at his friend's bar and were a smash.

They started playing the Chicago area, and Hayden found himself once again doing what he loved.

The band spent six years working on a CD, "Hard Times in the Heartland." Hayden and his cohorts are working on a second CD, "Big Daddy."

Saturday's show will be a tribute to Johnny Cash, with the band departing from Hayden's original music and playing all Cash covers.

The old-time country singer has been receiving a lot of attention recently, Hayden said, especially at the 2003 Grammy Awards, and he wanted to pay Cash his due.

"I was ecstatic to see a 71-year-old artist get a Grammy for best male vocal," Hayden said. "It's a tribute to what he represents as an artist."

Hayden hopes someday he can follow in Cash's footsteps.

"I'd like to see my music on the radio," he said, "whether I'm performing it or somebody else is."