Album Description: On his new album, Trouble In Mind, the 32 year-old Carll navigates his way through both stormy weather and calm, sun-drenched waters with ease, emerging with songs that melt even the hardest heart in town. Their impact is heightened by the fact that they're songs born of both immersion in the works of his songwriting heroes and plenty of real world experience.
Those elements certainly permeate Trouble In Mind, but 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.
Carll's personality, emotional but never too sentimental, mischievous, funny, world-weary and sardonic, imbues every track of Trouble in Mind.
Houston, we have a poet... The title I stole from another review I read of this CD. I've had this disc in heavy rotation for about 2 weeks now. Excellent stuff. More country than anything on country radio and yet still rockin' as well. If weren't for that geezer show "Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood" I would have missed out on this.
Laid Back Fun It's nice to enjoy an album that is just plain fun with great guitar and fantastic band playing perfectly with a singer with fascinating lyrics that sometimes make me laugh out loud. If you enjoy a touch of country mixed with a touch of rock and you have a free spirit, this one is truly for you. I particularly love "She Left Me for Jesus", the humor that glides through the song of a poor fellow whose girlfriend tells him she has become saved by Jesus with him confused is pure knock out funny. And a "Girl Downtown" about a simple boy meeting simply girl with plunking guitar is another fun one that is just entertaining fun that sounds great particular with backing vocals that sound like a mature Dolly Parton. There are beautiful songs as well such as "It's a Shame" about two potential lovers that somehow just missed. I played this album several times and I have never tired of Carll's voice , he matches the empathy of whatever song he sings, joy or sorrow, he sings just the way the song writer wants it sung. My only regret is that Carll is not touring in VA!
keep goin love hayes, just wish he'd play my way. i guess i don't have the ear like some of the other reviewers cause i didn't have sound issues.
An introduction to someone I already knew Just got a copy of Hayes Carll's "Trouble in Mind". Let me state at the outset that I really wanted to find something to dislike about this album/artist. Really. I put on my cynical big boy pants and black beret and tried to poke him with the derivative mashup label (which would rightfully stick), but it seemed like he just donned it like a Wall Drug trademark and waved it at me. And it worked. Carll is the unholy spawn of a "Country Bob" Dylan, pre-prison Steve Earll, an apolitical John Prine with a couple of fingers of Hank Williams. Roll `em all up, give `em a tax stimulus check and send them out into the south east Texas night to find a bar with generic neon beer signs and you have Hayes Carll. Funny as hell without working too hard for it, interesting like a hand waving bar conversation between William S, Burroughs and Dolly Parton and just plain enjoyable. If you like the badboy/alt.country/Americana stuff this would be a great addition to your collection. It should come with a bottle of whiskey (of uncertain pedigree)....you know, the kind you get drunk on rather than sip.
Witty, fun, true Texas country I'd never heard of Hayes Carll. I mean, here in Illinois, we don't get a whole lot of info about Texas musicians, unless they sell out and go national (Pat Green, Jack Ingram, etc), or have a long-standing history of being songwriting legends (Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, etc). So when I read a review of this album in a magazine, I basically skimmed it over--until I read that Carll covered a Tom Waits tune. That stopped me. Texas country singers are known for their, um, guts...but covering a Tom Waits tune? That can make or break ya. I just had to check it out.
Well, I'm glad I did. The Waits tune is "I Don't Wanna Grow Up," and Carll certainly does a good job covering it. But, let's face it--there's a hell of a lot more. Carll's own songwriting is downright admirable: from the fun-loving (yet dark-undertoned) "Drunken Poet's Dream" to the heart-wrenching "Willing to Love Again," Carll proves that he can hold his own amongst his legendary songwriting neighbors. "She Left Me For Jesus" is of course the attention-grabbing tune here, bound to offend anyone with weak sensibilities who can't detect irony; but there's more to the album than that, too. "I Got a Gig" perfectly captures the troubled arrogant stance of a six-night-a-week musician (as Carll growls "Good Lord I hope I get paid tonight/I got a gig, baby!"); "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" pretty much sums up the songwriter's ambition ("Doesn't anybody care about the truth anymore/I guess that's what songs are for"); and "A Lover Like You" takes playful honky-tonk jabs at the opposite sex ("I could never be friends with a lover like you").
Hayes Carll is a force to be reckoned with. He's bound for glory; maybe not commercial fame, but that's never been a good judge of talent, anyways. Carll is the real deal; he's a honky-tonk poet, and radio just isn't ready for that yet. One day, maybe. But until then, we can all sit back, listen to TROUBLE IN MIND, and realize that here, right here, is one of the new great songwriters on the country music circuit.
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