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.”
Take Me Away
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh babe, I'll be leavin' soon
Take me away
The winds are howlin' like an old freight train
Oh babe these are the winds of change
Take me away
Cause I been sittin' on the front porch
Watchin' the world go round
Through the eyes of a fool, head like a rock
My whole world tumblin' down
Rain beatin' down, on a midnight moon
Oh baby I'll be leavin' soon
Take me away
Grass around your ankles in the field before the flood
You're a rough-cut diamond in the Mississippi mud
Take me away
Well I'm a two-time loser with my guitar and my gun
You're a mover and a shaker, and a lover in the sun
Take me away
CHORUS
The lyrics of Hayes Carll's "Take Me Away" paint a vivid picture of a man who is tired of his current situation and seeking escape. The opening lines indicate that he is in an environment of rain and darkness, which often connotes sadness and despair. He feels that it is time to leave, and is perhaps looking for a new start somewhere. The winds of change that are howling around him have made him restless and he is yearning to move on.
In the chorus, the singer is sitting on his porch, watching the world pass him by. He realizes that he has been stuck in a rut, with his head buried in the sand, and that the world is moving on without him. He is feeling lost and alone, and his whole world is tumbling down. These lyrics show a person who has given up on life, feeling hopeless and unfulfilled, unable to see the positive things in life or move forward.
The final verse offers hope. The singer meets someone who is a diamond in the rough, who is also looking for a way out. He wants to be taken away by this person, who offers him the chance to start over again. With his guitar and his gun, he is ready to leave his old life behind and embrace a new path. The overall theme of the song seems to be about the search for meaning and purpose, and the need to escape the mundane and unfulfilling aspects of life.
Line by Line Meaning
Rain beatin' down, on a midnight moon
It's raining heavily, and it's dark, and I want to leave soon.
Oh babe, I'll be leavin' soon
I need you to know that I'll be heading out soon.
Take me away
I need you to take me away from here.
The winds are howlin' like an old freight train
The winds are very strong and eerie, like an old train.
Oh babe these are the winds of change
Things are about to change, and I need to leave before it's too late.
Take me away
Please take me away now.
Cause I been sittin' on the front porch
I've been sitting here for too long.
Watchin' the world go round
Watching everything happen around me.
Through the eyes of a fool, head like a rock
I've been oblivious to what's going on around me.
My whole world tumblin' down
Everything in my life is falling apart.
Rain beatin' down, on a midnight moon
It's still raining heavily and dark outside.
Oh baby I'll be leavin' soon
I really have to leave very soon.
Take me away
Please take me away from here.
Grass around your ankles in the field before the flood
You were there before the flood, and I remember the grass around your ankles.
You're a rough-cut diamond in the Mississippi mud
You're not perfect, but you're unique and valuable.
Take me away
Please take me away from here.
Well I'm a two-time loser with my guitar and my gun
I've failed twice, and all I have now is my guitar and my gun.
You're a mover and a shaker, and a lover in the sun
You're successful, active, and in love with life.
Take me away
Please just take me away from here.
Cause I been sittin' on the front porch
I've been sitting here for too long.
Watchin' the world go round
Watching everything happen around me.
Through the eyes of a fool, head like a rock
I've been oblivious to what's going on around me.
My whole world tumblin' down
Everything in my life is falling apart.
Contributed by Ava N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.