Carll has toured relentlessly in North America and abroad (performing over two hundred shows a year), founded a successful singer-songwriter music festival on the Gulf Coast of Texas, secured a record deal with Lost Highway Records, and has even seen his album Little Rock become the first self-released album to reach #1 on the Americana Music Chart.
"When I started, I moved down to this place called Crystal Beach, Texas where you need to take a ferry from Galveston across the bay to get to this little peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico," recalls Carll, who grew up just outside Houston. "It's this isolated coastal community with a wild assortment of people either hiding out, hanging on or getting lost-- a lot of drugs and drinking, a fair amount of violence, but at the same time a lot of really interesting people with great stories to tell. Folks in the bars there weren't necessarily interested in what I had to say as a songwriter-- they wanted to hear David Allan Coe and Merle Haggard, and other stuff they knew. So that's what I did six nights a week for four years. I haven't run into tougher crowds since. It was an initiation into becoming a performer."
Those experiences not only gave Carll a thick skin, they gave him plenty of material to spin into songs like the low-slung, finger-picked blues "I Got a Gig" -- populated by characters like the "barefoot shrimper with a pistol up his sleeve" -- and the tear-in-your-beer waltz "Beaumont," in which a suitor bearing a single white rose makes a fruitless trip to try to win over a lady love. Carll says of the latter tune. "I like to try to tackle a heavy topic but do it with a light touch. The more personal, weightier stuff doesn't come as easy, even though that's what I like to think about the most."
Carll has developed that touch over a long stretch that began when he was still in his teens, a stretch he spent writing poems, short stories and songs by the notebook-full. He eventually discovered that the last of those three flowed from him most easily, and while he dutifully headed off to college, he spent more time strumming and singing. To hear him tell it, "I sort of sabotaged my career options to the point where, by the time I was out of school, I was pretty much unemployable and had no choice but to be a musician."
After moving to the Gulf Coast, Carll honed his craft in the area bars and beer-joints as well as more serious folk clubs like the venerable Old Quarter in Galveston, where he opened for a wide array of respected songwriters such as Ray Wylie Hubbard, Willis Alan Ramsay and many others. By 2002, he was ready to unleash his recorded indie debut, Flowers and Liquor, which, while not widely distributed, garnered plenty of critical praise, including American Songwriter's claim that the disc "suggests the young Texan might be the next great songwriter from a state full of maestros."
He lived up to that praise on his next outing, Little Rock, an offering on which Carll showed off his stylistic breadth by steering his band from searing rock to jazz-tinged balladry -- a scope that earned praise both at home and across the pond, where the Irish Times raved "This is the first mighty country record of the year, a bruised, bedraggled affair full of jagged memories and wry observations."
On his 2008 album Trouble In Mind, there's a much sharper focus to the material, thanks in part, to more time in the studio and some great players sure to be familiar to roots-rock aficionados, including, Dan Baird, Darrell Scott, Will Kimbrough and former Flying Burrito Brother Al Perkins.
“My first record I did in five days, and my second one we did in twelve," Carll explains. "This time around I had a solid month, so it was really a luxury. It was amazing to get all these talented people in the room and have them listen to me describe my vision and then go out and try to realize that and capture it on tape. My strength isn't that I have the world's most amazing voice or that I'm this incredible player -- hopefully it's that there's some aspect of my personality and my lyrics that people can relate to."
Carll’s personality, emotional but never too sentimental, mischievous, funny, world-weary and sardonic, imbues every track of Trouble in Mind. He’s never afraid to be vulnerable and direct, as on one of the standout tracks, “Willing to Love Again” - “I feel too much, I protect too much, most times I probably expect too much. I spend my life on this broken crutch, and you believe I can fly.”
Carll's 2011 album KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories) was The album includes "Another Like You," a duet with Cary Ann Hearst The L.A. Times described the album as "Carll is every bit as expressive a singer as he is a writer, drawling his trenchant observations with deceptive ease."
Carll’s live performances continue to win over fans everywhere. His clever, irreverent lyrics and sharp observations combined with his warm Texas drawl make his stories and anecdotes as compelling and entertaining as his songs. There’s that sweet taste of honey followed with the sharp sting of a wisecrack. Never is that tongue-in-cheek humor more obvious than on the red neck rant “She Left Me For Jesus”, where a clueless lover is upset and suspicious over the changes in his girlfriend. “Now she’s acting funny and I don’t understand. I think that she’s found her some other man. She’s left me for Jesus, and that just ain’t fair. She says that he’s perfect, how can I compare?” “You know I’m always a little nervous when I sing that song. Like Ray Wiley Hubbard says, the problem with irony is that people don’t always get it.”
Faulkner Street
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On the front porch, on a Sunday, on an Arky afternoon
We were lyin' 'round like gypsies, thinkin' 'bout goin' to town
And Jimmy's drinkin' whiskey straight and lyin' in the shade
Jamie's dancin' round the kitchen with a glass of lemonade
Lookin' like an angel who's never gonna touch the ground
[Chorus]
How'd we ever lose that time?
Livin' for the best
Leavin' all the rest behind
Now them boys from Morgan County, they're a comin' out tonight
With country on the radio and trouble in their eyes
They come walkin' up the driveway, singin' 'bout the night before
And we'll head up to the mountain, pick-up trucks and old guitars
We'll all smoke marijuana as we look up at the stars
Raisin' hell for hours, until we can't take any more
[Chorus]
Now there's a picture on the mantle top, filled with old regrets
There are things I can't remember and times I won't forget
I'd call you up and tell you, but baby, we've been gone too long
That porch is just a memory and the record player's broke
Them hills have gone to houses and Jimmy's gone to smoke
But I'd do the whole thing over, darlin' just to hear that song
[Chorus]
Livin' for the best
Leavin' all the rest behind
The song "Faulkner Street" by Hayes Carll is a nostalgic recollection of a simpler time, likely in Arkansas. The first verse sets the scene of a lazy Sunday afternoon spent with friends, listening to an old record player and contemplating going into town. The second verse introduces the idea of trouble, with the arrival of some rowdy boys from Morgan County with "trouble in their eyes." They bring the country music and a sense of mischief, and the group heads up to the mountains to party and get high. The chorus reflects on the memories of that time and the feeling of living life to the fullest, leaving the troubles of the world behind.
Line by Line Meaning
The record player's scratchin' out an old and dusty tune
The record player is playing a worn and old song
On the front porch, on a Sunday, on an Arky afternoon
They are hanging out outside on a Sunday afternoon in Arkansas
We were lyin' 'round like gypsies, thinkin' 'bout goin' to town
They are lounging around and considering going into town
And Jimmy's drinkin' whiskey straight and lyin' in the shade
Jimmy is consuming straight whiskey and resting in the shade
Jamie's dancin' round the kitchen with a glass of lemonade
Jamie is dancing in the kitchen while holding a glass of lemonade
Lookin' like an angel who's never gonna touch the ground
Jamie is appearing pure and innocent like an angel who's never touched the ground
Trouble in mind
There is distress in their thoughts
How'd we ever lose that time?
They are questioning how they lost the time they spent together
Livin' for the best
They are living their lives to the fullest
Leavin' all the rest behind
They are leaving everything else they have behind
Now them boys from Morgan County, they're a comin' out tonight
The boys from Morgan County are now coming out tonight
With country on the radio and trouble in their eyes
They have country music on the radio and appear to be looking for something troublesome
They come walkin' up the driveway, singin' 'bout the night before
They arrive while singing about the previous night
And we'll head up to the mountain, pick-up trucks and old guitars
They will go to the mountain with their trucks and old guitars
We'll all smoke marijuana as we look up at the stars
They will all smoke marijuana while gazing at the stars
Raisin' hell for hours, until we can't take any more
They will cause chaos for hours, until they can't handle it anymore
Now there's a picture on the mantle top, filled with old regrets
There is a photo on the mantle that is full of old regrets
There are things I can't remember and times I won't forget
There are things that they cannot recall but will always remember
I'd call you up and tell you, but baby, we've been gone too long
They would like to tell someone, but they've been away for too long
That porch is just a memory and the record player's broke
They only have memories of the porch, and the record player isn't working
Them hills have gone to houses and Jimmy's gone to smoke
The hills are now covered with houses, and Jimmy is smoking
But I'd do the whole thing over, darlin' just to hear that song
They would do it all again just to hear that song
Livin' for the best
They are living their lives to the fullest
Leavin' all the rest behind
They are leaving everything else they have behind
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: HAYES CARLL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind