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.”
drive
Hayes Carll Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't you ever sleep
Calling out the exits signs like promises to keep
Yeah, promises to keep
Shooting star racing through the night
Long as you keep moving you won't ever die
No, you won't ever die
And down the road
Burning up your life
Oh, it's some place else to go
Just drive, drive drive
Round and round, a out of town
Like a mustang in the mountains
You're too wild to settle down
Sing your songs, throw your hammer in the air
Burning both ends of that candle
And pretend you don't care
Pretend that you don't care
Further along
And down the road
Burning up your life
Oh, it's some place else to go
Just drive, drive drive
Driving, driving
Don't you ever sleep
Lay down by the railroad tires with promises to keep
Yeah, promises to keep
The song “Drive” by Hayes Carll is about the endless pursuit of something more in life. The singer talks about driving relentlessly down a highway, calling out exit signs as promises to keep. The song implies that the destination is not as important as the journey itself. The idea of being in constant motion is emphasized when the singer says, “Long as you keep moving you won't ever die” because there’s always something new just around the bend. This song encourages listeners to keep pushing, exploring, and discovering – to keep up the search for something greater. Although the destination is unknown, the journey is what makes life worth living.
The chorus of the song further emphasizes this search for something more. It repeats, “Further along and down the road, burning up your life, there’s some place else to go, just drive, drive, drive.” This suggests that there is always a new adventure to be had if we just keep moving forward. The singer admits that the pursuit of this “something else” has become an obsession when he says, “Burning both ends of that candle and pretend you don’t care, pretend that you don’t care.”
Overall, the song “Drive” is a call to action for listeners to never stop exploring and pursuing something greater. The journey might not always be easy, but it’s worth it to keep moving forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Driving, driving
Constantly moving, never stopping
Don't you ever sleep
Never taking a break, always on the go
Calling out the exits signs like promises to keep
Each exit symbolizing a commitment to continue moving forward
Yeah, promises to keep
Acknowledging the constant need to keep going
Shooting star racing through the night
Traveling at high speeds through the darkness
Long as you keep moving you won't ever die
Finding a sense of purpose in constant motion
No, you won't ever die
Embracing the idea that as long as you continue moving forward, you'll never truly fail
Further along
Continuing to push ahead
And down the road
Moving forward down an unknown path
Burning up your life
Living with a sense of urgency and passion
Oh, it's some place else to go
Always searching for the next adventure
Just drive, drive drive
Encouraging the listener to keep moving forward
Round and round, a out of town
Navigating through unfamiliar territory
Like a mustang in the mountains
Navigating through difficult terrain with determination
You're too wild to settle down
Having a restless spirit, always searching for something more
Sing your songs, throw your hammer in the air
Expressing oneself freely and without fear
Burning both ends of that candle
Living life to the fullest, pushing the limits
And pretend you don't care
Putting on a facade of carefreeness
Further along
Continuing to push ahead
And down the road
Moving forward down an unknown path
Burning up your life
Living with a sense of urgency and passion
Oh, it's some place else to go
Always searching for the next adventure
Just drive, drive drive
Encouraging the listener to keep moving forward
Driving, driving
Constantly moving, never stopping
Don't you ever sleep
Never taking a break, always on the go
Lay down by the railroad tires with promises to keep
Even while resting, still holding onto the drive to keep going
Yeah, promises to keep
Acknowledging the constant need to keep going
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Joshua Hayes Carll
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind