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.”
Hard Out Here
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All this flying high and falling down
I gotta get back to the way I was
Gonna turn it 'round darlin' just because
And everybody's talkin' 'bout the shape I'm in
They say "boy, you ain't a poet, just a drunk with a pen."
All over and over, again and again,
Lord they don't know about the places I've been
It get's hard out here
I know it don't look it
I used to have heart, but the highway took it
The game was right but the deal was crooked
Lord I'll make it perfectly clear, it get's hard out here
Ah, I guess there must be something I'm missin'
My mama told me I should've gone into easy listenin'
Joined up with a band 'cause I thought it was cool
Lord I probably should've just gone back to school
Ah pretty darlin' it'll be okay
You know one of these days I'm gonna take you away
She said, "oh sweet daddy, you're probably right,
You know we might get lucky but it won't be tonight"
It get's hard out here
I know it don't look it
I used to have heart, but the highway took it
The game was right but the deal was crooked
Lord make it perfectly clear, it get's hard out here
I know it don't seem it
I said I tried but I never did mean it
Nobody's listening so we might as well scream it
Oh God we're all out of beer
It get's hard out here
Hayes Carll's song "Hard out Here" tells the story of a musician's journey through life and how he's struggling to keep up with the speed at which his life is moving. The song begins by describing the singer's life, which has been full of ups and downs, with highs and lows. He is trying to bring back the glory days of yore and turn his life around. Despite his efforts, people keep passing judgement on him, calling him a drunkard when in reality he is a poet with a pen. The singer has been through a lot of difficult times, which people are not aware of, and he wishes they could understand what he has been through.
The chorus of the song speaks about how hard life gets and how difficult it is to put on a brave face and continue to soldier on. The world has chewed him up and spit him out, and he no longer has the heart he used to have. The game was right, but the deal was crooked, and he has nothing to show for all his hard work. He repeats that it gets hard out here, making sure that the listener understands that life isn't always as it seems.
The second verse describes him contemplating his life and how he could have made different choices that would have led him in a different direction. He thinks he should have joined a band or gone back to school, but he didn't. The singer's lover tells him everything will be alright, but he replies that it might take some time. He acknowledges that he doesn't have it all together yet, and it might take a while for things to work themselves out.
___
Line by Line Meaning
After all these years of runnin' 'round
After so long doing things I thought I wanted
All this flying high and falling down
All the ups and downs I've had
I gotta get back to the way I was
I want to return to my former self
Gonna turn it 'round darlin' just because
I'm going to change things for the better
And everybody's talkin' 'bout the shape I'm in
Everyone's discussing my current state
They say "boy, you ain't a poet, just a drunk with a pen."
They tell me I'm not really an artist, just an intoxicated writer
All over and over, again and again,
Repetitively, time and time again
Lord they don't know about the places I've been
They have no idea of the experiences I've had
It get's hard out here
Life can become challenging
I know it don't look it
I know things might seem different
I used to have heart, but the highway took it
Traveling has drained me of my passion
The game was right but the deal was crooked
The plan seemed good, but something went wrong
Lord I'll make it perfectly clear, it get's hard out here
I'm telling you the truth, it's tough out here
Ah, I guess there must be something I'm missin'
There's probably something I don't understand
My mama told me I should've gone into easy listenin'
My mom thinks I should have chosen an easier career path
Joined up with a band 'cause I thought it was cool
I formed a band because I thought it was fashionable
Lord I probably should've just gone back to school
I should have pursued further education instead
Ah pretty darlin' it'll be okay
Don't worry, it will all work out
You know one of these days I'm gonna take you away
Someday I'll take you on a romantic trip
She said, "oh sweet daddy, you're probably right,
She agreed with me
You know we might get lucky but it won't be tonight"
Maybe we'll have good fortune, but not tonight
I know it don't seem it
I know it doesn't appear that way
I said I tried but I never did mean it
I didn't genuinely put in the effort I claimed to
Nobody's listening so we might as well scream it
Since nobody's paying attention, we can shout it out loud
Oh God we're all out of beer
We've run out of beer
It get's hard out here
Life can become challenging
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: HAYES CARLL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind