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.”
Hide Me
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of flying high and fallin' down
Well, the time has come at last
To rest my heart and ease my past
I'm gonna leave these blues behind
For some other fool to find
He don't care and I won't mind
Hide me babe, hide me babe
Darlin', don't you cry tonight
The moon is full and the world is right
I've loved more than my share
I took the pain and called it fair
So, I'm gonna lay down all my fears
My highway shoes and my ramblin' tears
They can shout it down the line
I can't lose what was not mine
I raise my glass and make a toast
We're better than some, little harder than most
Left our mark on every town
Chased our dreams and stood our ground
But I can't do those things no more
Not the way I done before
The same winds that brought me through
Can send me back the same way too
After all these years of running 'round
Of flying high and fallin' down
Well, the time has come at last
Rest my heart and ease my past
I'm gonna leave these blues behind
For some other fool to find
He don't care and I won't mind
Hide me babe, hide me babe
The song "Hide Me" by Hayes Carll tells the story of a traveler who has spent years on the road, feeling the highs and lows of life. The singer of the song feels it is finally time to rest his heart and leave behind his past. Reflecting on his experiences, he acknowledges the pain and heartbreak he has endured, but views it as a fair price for the love and adventure he has gained. The lyrics convey a sense of acceptance for a life well-lived and a desire for peace and rest.
Throughout the song, the singer expresses a desire to hide from the world, to leave his pain and struggles behind. It is possible that he is finding it difficult to adjust to normal life after years of traveling or has experienced some kind of personal crisis. Overall, the lyrics speak to the human need for respite and reflection, as well as the complexity of the emotional landscape that accompanies a life of wandering.
Line by Line Meaning
After all these years of running 'round
After years of constantly being on the move
Of flying high and fallin' down
Of experiencing both success and failure
Well, the time has come at last
The time has finally arrived
To rest my heart and ease my past
To find peace and let go of the past
I'm gonna leave these blues behind
To move on and leave behind the sadness
For some other fool to find
To let someone else deal with it
He don't care and I won't mind
He won't care to find them and he won't mind leaving them behind
Darlin', don't you cry tonight
Asking his beloved not to cry tonight
The moon is full and the world is right
Comforting her by saying everything is perfect tonight
I've loved more than my share
He has loved more than what he feels was his fair share
I took the pain and called it fair
He accepted the pain that came with love and considered it to be fair
So, I'm gonna lay down all my fears
He will let go of all the fears that he has been holding on to
My highway shoes and my ramblin' tears
He will let go of his lifestyle that involved traveling and shedding tears on the road
They can shout it down the line
Others can criticize his choices and lifestyle
I can't lose what was not mine
He cannot lose what he never truly possessed
I raise my glass and make a toast
He raises his glass for a toast
We're better than some, little harder than most
He feels that he and his companions are better and stronger than others
Left our mark on every town
They have made an impact in every town they've been to
Chased our dreams and stood our ground
They pursued their dreams and refused to give up
But I can't do those things no more
He can no longer continue living that lifestyle
Not the way I done before
He can't continue doing things the way he used to do them before
The same winds that brought me through
The same forces that helped him get through tough times
Can send me back the same way too
Can also make him go back to where he started
After all these years of running 'round
After years of constantly being on the move
Of flying high and fallin' down
Of experiencing both success and failure
Well, the time has come at last
The time has finally arrived
Rest my heart and ease my past
To find peace and let go of the past
I'm gonna leave these blues behind
To move on and leave behind the sadness
For some other fool to find
To let someone else deal with it
He don't care and I won't mind
He won't care to find them and he won't mind leaving them behind
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: HAYES CARLL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind