Hayes Carll

About

Hayes Carll is one of the best of a new breed of Texas singer/songwriters. He has cut his teeth working the same coffee houses, honky-tonks and bars that have spawned the likes of Lyle Lovett and Townes Van Zandt. 2005 saw him traveling back and forth across the US performing over 200 shows in support of his second cd, Little Rock.

This self-released album went number 1 and ranked number 3 overall for the year on the Americana Radio chart with over 13,000 spins. Little Rock is full of songs that deliver a gut-punch of honesty and gritty realism. He teamed with roots producer R.S. Field (Billy Joe Shaver, Sonny Landreth, Buddy Guy) for this project. The album features Alison Moorer on guest vocals and guitarist Kenny Vaughn (Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell). Carll also managed to track down two of his songwriting heroes, Guy Clark and Ray Wyllie Hubbard, to write songs for the album.

Hayes is a gambler and the gamble is paying off. True to his maverick mentality, the decision to release the album on his own Highway 87 label was easy. I just couldnt see spending the next 10 years of my life not controlling what I have.

So hows he getting all that attention for his new record? Its all because of one thinggreat music. Songs that rock like the opening Wish I Hadnt Stayed So Long and songs that roll out of the speaker like a lullaby (Take Me Away). Great music has a way of reaching the surface and finding an audience. Relentless touring, radio airplay and word of mouth have been reaching fans across the country and introducing them to Hayes and his music.

Hayes Carll - Little Rock ****
Maverick (London)

"New Texas cult hero finally gains UK release for his acclaimed Americana album".

Honky Tonkin' with a make believe snarl and a sparkle in his eye, Hayes Carll has all the attitude and song writing bite to have caused quite a stir since this was released Stateside. Right now, just about every commentator on Americana over there is batting for him, thanks to his smile-inducing style and obvious star potential. Just watch the ripples turn to waves now that the album has finally been issued in the UK. What has earned him almost universal appeal is the smart pacing of the rock n roll delivery with a fine grade of Steve Earle grit in the mix. Much of the material is tongue in cheek and built around personal reflections. Seemingly experienced beyond his years, he has a kind of wry smile that has observed the world around him closely but found a way to stop short of cynical. Miller and Ray Wylie Hubbard, both use every chance they get to sing Carll's praises, the latter contributing some co-writing skills (loose description this time) on the only meaningless track of the thirteen, a piece of pure padding called "Chickens" which is little more than a dabble at second-rate boogie. At least in the sleeve notes he has the decency to comment: 'Ray and I felt that what the world needed was a song about chickens. There is a good chance that we were wrong'. That's the one real low point, though. "Rivertown" is a different matter altogether, this time with Guy Clark helping out to create a moody gem. Allison Moorer adds silky smooth backing vocals on "Take Me Away" and "Good Friends", as he ponders what's become of his high school buddies. "Hey, Baby, Where you Been?" recalls how he was mugged twice during his first ever solo tour, in Memphis and New York, and left to wonder why. 'The one good thing about being poor', he says, 'is that you don't have a whole lot for people to steal. Somewhere in Tennessee, someone has a toothbrush that doesn't belong to them'. If he can keep churning out material of this caliber, Hayes Carll will not be poor for very much longer. --LT

Little Rock, Hayes Carll (Highway 87 Music)
Rock and Rap Confidential

Not Americana so much as folk rock as it existed around the time of Another Side of Bob Dylan and Tom Rush's Take a Little Walk with Me. "Chickens," the final track, clinches the deal with an Al Kooper-like guitar solo and a laconic vocal that suggests what "Black Crow Blues" would have sounded like with a band.

Hayes Carll - Little Rock ****
The Sun (London)

He has paid his dues at the Steve Earle school of whiskey-soaked country rock and bleeding-heart ballads. Given his confident southern swagger and quality songwriting, Hayes clearly has it in him to climb to the top of the Americana tree...on both sides of the Atlantic. The young singer's engaging drawl could easily belong to someone twice his age, so easy, so effortless is his delivery. It doesn't matter whether he's handling a song like the yearning Take Me Away or a high-octane wig-out like Little Rock because here, it seems, is a dude fully in control of his destiny. The rapid-fire Down The Road Tonight recalls Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues but changes the setting from New York's streets to a riotous Texas bar room. Another cracker is his collaboration with the esteemed Ray Wylie Hubbard on dirty blues closer Chickens. Yee-hah!

HAYES CARLL Little Rock MMACD1023 ****
The Irish Times

This is the first mighty country record of the year, a bruised, bedraggled affair full of jagged memories and wry observations. As indicated by his back-to-front name, Hayes Carll is a 28-year-old Texan and this is his second album. Little Rock seeps regret, bristles with experience and oozes attitude - the product of a decade trying to fit into the American music machine. It's no accident that Ray Wylie Hubbard is repeatedly name-checked; Carll shares many of the same characteristics: twisted irony, a love of the dark side and a slurred voice worn down by the weight of expectations, but always ready to kick it out one more time, as on the title track, one of 10 written or co-written by Carll. Producer RS Field's loose, feisty production captures the mood bang on and helps whet the appetite for Carll's appearance at Whelan's in Dublin on February 17th with the great Buddy Miller.