- This topic has 21 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
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!
Woo hoo! Just got tickets to see Hayes May 15th at a new (at least for me) Atlanta venue, Terminal West! 8)
Tom
Hayes’ show tonight at the relatively new (open just over a year) venue, Terminal West (Downtown, near Georgia Tech) was simply fantastic.
First the venue. A very cool, railroad-themed industrial space, with plenty of brick, ironwork & rough hewn timbers, it is a smallish room (maybe capacity of 250?) with an open floor, bar tables in the back downstairs & a standing-room only small balcony above. In the very back, bathrooms, and a giant, black, cast iron boiler, like from an old steam locomotive. For tonight’s show, there were five rows of folding chairs up front with an aisle down the middle, standing room space behind them (about 10 – 15 feet deep) & then the bar tables. Three bars, two downstairs, one up, serving a huge variety of craft beers (Mrs. Tracy was very pleased) & mixed drinks. A good-sized stage, elevated about two feet. And a GREAT sound system. A room clearly engineered for live music. All in all, likely to become one of our very favorite Atlanta venues – a true “hidden jewel” for us (this was our first show there).
The opening band, The Warren Hood Band, was damn good. The front man, Mr. Hood himself, played one mean fiddle. Not until after their set when Hayes took the stage did I realize they were also Hayes’ touring band, so their opening for him was a page right out of the “Buick 6” playbook.
Hayes’ set was incredible. The band was tight, and he was as entertaining and humorous as ever. I did not take note of the complete set list, but I was holding an on-going conversation on Facebook with ParkerCA (another big Hayes Carll fan) during the show, and I included many of the song titles in my posts. Here is what I posted there, along with a couple other from memory (song order is close, except for the ones that I did not post on Facebook):
Drunken Poet’s Dream
Another Like You (duet with female keyboardist from Warren Hood Band, Emily Gimble, singing the female part & whose voice, particularly on this tune, reminded me of Iris DeMent)
I Got A Gig
Bad Liver And A Broken Heart
KMAG YOYO
Live Free or Die
One Bed, Two Girls, Three Bottles of Wine (an instant classic, with a great introduction)
She Left Me for Jesus (one of my very favorites)
I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
Hard Out Here (complete w/ a line dance of sorts of attractive young ladies dancing together right in front of the stage – God, is this a great country, or what? 😉 )
Stomp and Holler
Hide Me (preceded by a “shout out” to the late, great George Jones)
The Lovin’ CupIt was a wonderful show and a good time appeared to be had by all. Of course, like most any show, it was not without a run-in with some rude assholes. (ParkerCA, I am copying this account mostly from Facebook, as I am too lazy to type it all in again, so feel free to gloss over it… 😉 ) After the opener, and before Hayes took the stage, we frickin’ had to move because of some rude-ass people. When we arrived, we took up a standing position in the middle of the room, just behind the last row of chairs (which were all taken by the time we arrived) and just to the right of the middle aisle. An older, redneck (I later learned when he spoke) couple were sitting at a bar table 10 feet or so behind us during the opener. We were, of course, surrounded by other people standing, all the way back behind us towards the bar tables. After the opening set, when Sarah was back at the bar getting another beer and I wasn’t paying attention, the bar table couple moved their damn bar stools up to where Sarah had been standing right next to me & to my left. I nicely told them, “Uh, my wife is standing there.” They said they couldn’t see while sitting at their table, then settled onto their stools & stayed, jammed up to my left side. They ignored Sarah when she got back and she asked me, “Do you want me to stand in front of you?”, to which I replied in a loud enough voice so the rude couple could hear, “I guess so since they stole your space” (the woman repeated this to her husband, yet they stayed pat). But after a minute or two, I got disgusted, and we moved closer up on the left side of the room (facing the stage). I told the rednecks as we left, leaning over between them, “Excuse me, that was RUDE!”, then quickly left before they could respond. The man glared at me off & on during Hayes’ set, but then they left early before even the encore (losers) & did not harass us on their way out (which led them just past where we were standing). Jerks. They should have realized all that space in front of the bar tables was going to be filled with people standing. But, it was OK in the long run, we actually had a better view from our new location (beside the third row of folding chairs) and, the sound system was so good, it still sounded nice and balanced even from the side of the room.
One of the better shows I have been to in a while – I think the tour is almost over (he mentioned Austin coming up), but check him and The Warren Hood Band out if you get a chance – you will not be disappointed!
Tom
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.