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.”
Rivertown
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Everythings forgiven that did not wash away
Where dreaming comes too easy, livings twice as hard
And everything is burried, beneath the water and the stars
Yeah I am from Corsican', wayward on the storm
I've been rolling empty sevens since the day that I was born
I've got no rings upon my fingers, no ink beneath my skin
CHORUS
I'm gonna wash my sins in the Angilina river
When all that she can take from me, is all that I can give her
And time will bring you down, and time will make you cold
I've turned my back some time ago, and now I'm going home
Well I wondered through the pine trees like an outlaw in the rain
I rambled through big thicket with a pistol and my name
Run away restless angels, don't waste your love on me
Just lay me down in a river town, and home is where I'll be
CHORUS
Well take me to the rivertown where you can't tell night from day
Everythings forgiven that did not wash away
The song Rivertown by Hayes Carll speaks about finding redemption and a sense of belonging in a place where everything is washed away by the river, and where dreaming comes too easy, but living is twice as hard. The main theme of the song revolves around seeking a fresh start in life by washing away one's past mistakes and starting anew. The lyrics of the song are melancholic and introspective, highlighting the challenges faced in life and the desire to find solace in a place that is untouched by the turbulence of the world outside.
The song's chorus refers to the Angilina River as a symbol of redemption, where the singer seeks to wash away his sins and start anew. The repetitive lyrics of the chorus give the song a sense of resolve, and the emotional weight of the song comes from the raw emotion in Hayes' voice as he sings about the desire to leave behind a life that no longer serves him.
The verse lyrics of the song are poetic and evocative, using vivid imagery to paint a picture of the challenges the singer faced throughout their life. The line "I've been rolling empty sevens since the day that I was born" is a reference to the game of craps, where rolling an empty seven symbolizes bad luck. The reference is a testament to the hardship the singer has faced throughout their life, but despite this, they remain determined to find a new way forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Take me to a rivertown where you can't tell night from day
Bring me to a place where time is irrelevant and the days and nights blend together.
Everythings forgiven that did not wash away
In this rivertown, all past mistakes are washed away with the river.
Where dreaming comes too easy, livings twice as hard
In this place, it's easy to dream about a better life, but actually living it is much harder.
And everything is burried, beneath the water and the stars
Everything is hidden and forgotten beneath the water and the stars in this rivertown.
Yeah I am from Corsican', wayward on the storm
I come from a place where chaos and unpredictability is the norm.
I've been rolling empty sevens since the day that I was born
Luck has never been on my side, and I've always struggled to get by.
I've got no rings upon my fingers, no ink beneath my skin
I have no external symbols of my identity or past experiences.
I'll be as clean going out as I was coming in
I will leave this world with nothing, just as I came into it.
I'm gonna wash my sins in the Angilina river
I plan to cleanse myself of my past mistakes by submerging myself in the river.
When all that she can take from me, is all that I can give her
I will give everything I have to the river, even if it's not much.
And time will bring you down, and time will make you cold
As time passes, it wears you down and makes you jaded.
I've turned my back some time ago, and now I'm going home
I left my old life behind a while ago, and now I am returning to where I feel I truly belong.
Well I wondered through the pine trees like an outlaw in the rain
I wandered through the woods alone and aimlessly, feeling like a rebel.
I rambled through big thicket with a pistol and my name
I traveled through dense areas with nothing but my wits and my name to rely on.
Run away restless angels, don't waste your love on me
Those who feel lost and unsure of themselves should not invest their love or affection in me.
Just lay me down in a river town, and home is where I'll be
All I need is a simple, peaceful life in a rivertown to call home.
Contributed by Christopher E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.