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Had a massively good time at the The Mint in Los Angeles last night. Opening acts The Dedringers were great. I had seen Dedringers before and dug them but had never heard of the second band, South Austin Jug Band. They were also great. Dedringers played for a little under an hour, the South Austin Jug Band played for a little over an hour.
The little place was packed for Hayes Carll when he came on at 10:30 and he was tremendous. He played for an hour and 45 minutes and did most of his new album, which he signed for me. He is a very pleasant lad and chatted with anyone who wanted to. Mike Stinson was there and he was also very friendly. He is on my list for people to see next.
If Hayes Carll comes to your town you should check him out. He is from Houston, TX.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2008/11/hayes_carll_interview_story_outtakes_duck_room_st_louis_2008_trouble_in_mind_lost_highway.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnH5plNwKJk
HC was on Imus this morning and played the title song from new record (KMAG YOYO) coming out in Feb(?) – – sounds good.
Hayes Carll has a dry, chapped voice, bolstered and puckered by Texas twang. His music puts forth a fair amount of bluster, steeped in wanderlust or whiskey, or both at once. “Well, I followed my feet all across this land/A tune in my heart and a bottle in my hand,” goes one opening couplet from his fourth album, the title of which features an acronym of unprintable military slang. Those lines come from “Bottle in My Hand,” a bluegrass number with guest vocals by Mr. Carll’s fellow troubadours Todd Snider and Corb Lund. And as often happens in Mr. Carll’s songs, he’s not heading in the direction you might expect.
Gimlet eyed and smart mouthed, with a self-deprecating kind of swagger, he has positioned himself as an heir to outlaw-country royalty like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and especially Ray Wylie Hubbard, with whom he has written songs and occasionally performed. The gentlest hangdog entreaty here is “Chances Are,” which could pass for a vintage ballad by Mr. Nelson. The most puckish is “Another Like You,” a bickering his-and-hers special (with Cary Ann Hearst holding her own) that recalls the subversively droll songwriting of Shel Silverstein.
What makes Mr. Carll something other than a torchbearer is the frank timeliness of his lyrics, which draw few distinctions between the personal and the political. He’s a sucker for a tart turn of phrase — his 2008 album, “Trouble in Mind” (Lost Highway), included a tune called “She Left Me for Jesus,” — but he doesn’t let humor get in the way of narrative momentum. The title track pulls off the Dylanesque trick of lacing a comic yarn with bitter subtext.
And there are at least a few songs here that suggest the rueful side of unruliness, as the hard-drinking guitar slinger indulges in a moment of reflection. Along those lines it hardly escapes notice that on an album redolent of aggressive honky-tonk “Bottle in My Hand” takes such a liltingly acoustic path. (Brad Jones, the album’s producer, switches from piano to upright bass.) The lyrics allude to “trouble at the border and a far-off war/Oil in the water and the shut-down store,” before eventually arriving at a pointed conclusion: “Never had a home. Just lucky, I guess.” [NATE CHINEN/NY TIMES]
Big Hayes Carll fan here, Lefty. He was on the Tonight show a few weeks ago and did the title song from his new record.
The accolades keep rolling in:
http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/hayes-carlljason-isbell-and
Great new Hayes Carll video here, “Another Like You”…
Tom
Hayes Carll and band played a great set here tonight.
they’re on the road, so catch ’em if ya can!
http://www.hayescarll.com/I wanted to write a blog about our AMA Music Awards weekend last fall and came up short.
We (tnt, stoger, & westwords) were having many ‘connect the dots’ experiences and Hayes Carll was one of them, in a roundabout way.
We went to a nice little bar and grill on Broadway, sauntered up to the bar to order some drinks and appetizers. As it turned out, Hayes’ road manager was sitting next to us and we had a great 20 minute or so conversation with him. We asked where Hayes’ was and we were told “back in the room, all tucked in.”
Saw Hayes Carll last night for the second time. Great songwriter with a hot band. Check them out if you get the chance!
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