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.”
Leave Here Standing
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Well dreams are made for restless heartsI should have known that right from the startThat every lover plays their partOr the whole thing comes undone
Chorus:And I know I'll leave here standingThat's just the way it's always beenI'm scared I'll close my eyes and thenI'll never look on you no more
Oh sweet angel it's time to goThe summer rains are winter snowAnd I just wanted you to knowI miss you when you're gone
So take a breath and ease your mindGo on and leave the past behindSome things you won't ever findLooking way too long
Repeat chorus x 2
Hayes Carll's "Leave Here Standing" is a introspective song that talks about the fear of losing someone who means everything to you. The singer of the song feels like he has been down a road like this before and has lost nearly everything he had. He is worried that he can't lose anymore. The song talks about how dreams are made for restless hearts and how one should always follow their dreams as if they are not, then the whole thing comes undone. The chorus of the song is the recurring theme, which talks about how the singer knows that he will leave standing as that's how it has always been, he is scared to close his eyes and never look at the one he loves again.
The second verse of the song talks about how the singer loves his partner and that it's time to go, and they should move on from the past. They should take a breath and ease their mind and leave the past behind. Some things are never found when we look for them for too long.
This song leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and it is open to different meanings. But what is clear is the fear of losing someone who is everything to us, and how one should never give up on their dreams. The song's melody is particularly catchy and harmonizes well with the lyrics. Overall, the song is a great example of songwriting that connects to the audience and moves them emotionally.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't take me down that road again
Please don't make me revisit the same situation that caused me pain or trouble in the past
I been there once before my friend
I have already experienced that situation before and I don't want to go through it again
It seems I've lost near everything
I feel like I have lost almost everything, and I don't want to lose anything else
And I can't lose no more
I cannot afford to lose anything else
Well dreams are made for restless hearts
Dreams are meant for people who can't sit still or stay content with their current status or situation
I should have known that right from the start
I should have realized that from the beginning
That every lover plays their part
Every lover has their own role to play in the relationship
Or the whole thing comes undone
If one lover fails to play their part properly, the whole relationship may fall apart
And I know I'll leave here standing
I am confident that I will come out of this situation unscathed
That's just the way it's always been
This is just how things have always turned out for me
I'm scared I'll close my eyes and then
I'm afraid that if I close my eyes, I will never see you again
I'll never look on you no more
I will never see you again
Oh sweet angel it's time to go
It's time for you to leave, my dear angel
The summer rains are winter snow
The good times have passed and things have changed for the worse
And I just wanted you to know
I just wanted to tell you
I miss you when you're gone
I feel lonely and sad when you are not with me
So take a breath and ease your mind
Relax and calm down
Go on and leave the past behind
Let go of the past and move forward
Some things you won't ever find
Some things you will never be able to find or get back
Looking way too long
If you keep searching for those things for too long, you might end up losing more
I know I'll leave here standing
I am confident that I will come out of this situation unscathed
That's just the way it's always been
This is just how things have always turned out for me
I'm scared I'll close my eyes and then
I'm afraid that if I close my eyes, I will never see you again
I'll never look on you no more
I will never see you again
Contributed by Gavin R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.