“Heavy stuff that was just beautiful, and I didn’t even pick up who it was. I went home that night and looked at my records. That song was on there. I put the record on and then it clicked.”
Which is some distance from suggesting that Carll is any kind of Townes knockoff. He’s not. The new album’s opening “Drunken Poet’s Dream” is, for example, a pretty straightforward homage to The Band. Listening to Townes and Guy Clark (with whom Carll co-wrote “Rivertown” on Little Rock) and Jimmy Buffett, who the shrimpers must’ve loved, all that gave him an ear for detail. And a sense of humor, which isn’t necessarily what Townes was known for (at least in song).
He sings in a rough and easy voice that sounds like he’s not trying. “You were the girl I never knew I wanted/I was the boy you hoped you’d never see/It’s a shame we ain’t lovers,” he offers up amid “It’s A Shame”. Or “I come around too fast/And I always leave too soon,” a simple enough blues throwaway, but telling nevertheless, on “Wild As A Turkey”. Or the whole slouching glee of “I Got A Gig” and “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart”, both of which are well-titled and considerably more subtle than might be guessed.
That’s right, he is from Texas.
Which is, of course, a double-edged sword. These days there are, at least, twin forks in Texas music. One goes down the dusty road Townes followed, the other plays to a less subtle audience that seems more interested in another beer and a party than, say, the blues.
Both audiences have embraced Carll. Heck, he’s a fella who likes to have fun, even if his goals and influences are a little different. Nevertheless, he has learned to choose his words.
“I just wanted to be a songwriter, and I had my heroes,” he says. “I’m a sixth-generation Texan, and probably three out of four of my favorite artists are Texans. I just thought there’s a pretty wide gap between Lyle Lovett and Guy Clark and Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson and maybe some of the hundreds of guys…” he pauses, referencing the current crop of Texas-circuit stars from Pat Green to Cory Morrow and on down the list. “And I see those guys all the time, and work with them, and they’re all much more successful, in some way, in the state than I am.
“But it still gives us down here a way to make a living. And people really, really love their music. And just because it’s not necessarily what inspires me doesn’t mean it’s not making someone else really happy. I never thought I’d be in a honky-tonk with 500 people singing along to my songs; that’s just not how I envisioned my deal going. But when it happens, it’s fun.”
His deal went a little more national than most of the Texas-centric artists manage. He went to #1 on the Americana radio chart, toured 26 states and seven countries over 200-odd dates in 2007. “But my bread is buttered in Texas,” he says. “I think I’ve got, hopefully, fans all over the place. But I’m a lot more certain of what kind of crowd I’m going to draw in Houston than I am in Minneapolis.”
The hope, of course, is that affiliation with a good-sized label will expand that audience. That said, Trouble In Mind doesn’t sound tarted up for the big leagues. Presented with a list of potential producers, Carll ended up picking Brad Jones, known mostly around Nashville as a very tasteful pop producer (think: Over The Rhine, Garrison Starr, Josh Rouse), though he has a long resume as a mainstream country engineer as well. And he played on Robert Earl Keen’s Gringo Honeymoon. In the end, the album sounds like Hayes Carll, deceptively easy and unexpectedly smart. See, especially: “I Got A Gig”, as self-knowing a singalong song as anybody this side of Tommy Womack has managed.
Problem with making a record was, Hayes was so busy touring behind Little Rock that he forgot to write songs. “I’m not a particularly disciplined guy in any walk of life,” he says, “but particularly in writing. It’s kind of the thing that I like to do when nothing else is going on. When I’m alone and have time to think about stuff. A hotel room with three dudes isn’t really that time.”
The songs came, eventually. “At a certain point, after I’d exhausted all my entertainment options,” he laughs, “then it was, ‘Well, shit, I think I remember writing used to be a lot of fun. I’ll go try that again.’ And, sure enough, always make a resolution: This is what I’m supposed to be doing, stop wasting time. But it’s easier said than done.”
It’s all a gamble, of course, which plays to Carll’s other passion. “I just like playing games in general, and when there’s money involved it’s a lot more fun,” he says. “So I’m always trying to find a game when I’m on the road. And usually what I’ve discovered is if I’m having a really good tour, financially, I’ll go out and hit a casino and find a game and lose my shirt. But whenever I’m out making $50 a night and out for a couple weeks and I’m just about down to the end of my rope, I’ll go to a casino and kinda make my tour’s pay in a night. So it always seems to balance out.”
Grant Alden has been co-editor and art director of No Depression since the magazine launched in 1995.
