Texas singer-songwriter Carll makes nouveau-outlaw country, poetic diction delivered with a rasp (a lover who "likes to lay naked and be gazed upon," indeed).  His best melodies are honky-tonk lamentations, with detours into banjo-plunking balladry ("Girl...

This Texas troubadour displays both heart (the aching "Don't Let Me Fall") and humor (the hilarious "She Left Me for Jesus") on an alt-country disc that gives Ryan Adams something to worry about. Album Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Hayes Carll works in the hallowed tradition of smart-aleck Texas singer/songwriters (like Ray Wylie Hubbard, who co-wrote one song here) whose shaggy-dog stories always seem to have a poetic twist. The 12 originals on Trouble In Mind—which also sports...

NASHVILLE -- Hayes Carll, 32, arranges his long limbs around a high-top table in the bar of a trendy Nashville restaurant. He's clearly out of place, but frequenting these locales comes with the new visibility he's earned as one of the most talked about...

With his stringy blond hair and hangdog expression, Hayes Carll looks like any other kid riding the counter third shift at a 7-Eleven or stringing phone wire somewhere beyond the realm of life as lived in the suburbs. It’s not shiftless; he’s not that...

The tone is spot-on and the songs have just the right amount of heft, humour and humanity. You can see why Guy Clark championed this 32-year-old Texan and co-wrote with him on his last album.  Even then Carll's own songs stood out. There are 14 on his...

I keep hearing about people who need closure. Things must be resolved, the package must be wrapped, the ribbon strapped tight, the bow affixed and fluffed. Don't forget the card -- thinking of you! -- and then, boom, closure. Everything makes sense now,...

This Texas coaster covers plenty of bases on his third album, many of them alcoholic, and the tastiest perched between stadium rockabilly and Dylan-worship rock. Whether he’s feeling nostalgic for small-town foibles or fancying himself a drunken poet...

Self-Made Americana Hero Loses his Girl to the Son of God... For fans of John Prine or Todd Snider, 32-year-old Texan Hayes Carll is a familiar type—a mush-mouthed drawler who's smarter about the beat than his shambling ways would make you think and...

Hayes Carll, at 32, is poised to join the pantheon of great Texas songwriters. Last week, his remarkable third album, "Trouble in Mind," was nominated for an Americana Music Award, with Carll earning another nod for the hilarious song "She Left Me for...

Looks like the third time's a charm for Texan singer-songwriter Hayes Carll  - the rough 'n' tumble country-folk outlaw has just released album number three, Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway), and it's a huge leap forward for the guy. Not only does his...

Let's say you're into pop music. Rock, country, alt-rock, alt-country, alt-whatever. You already know who you like, but where do you go to find new stuff you might like just as much or even more? That used to be the radio's job. You'd turn...

Though only in his early 30s, Hayes Carll seemed to have taken the long way 'round. But his way. The Texas singer-songwriter follows in the long line of the Lone Star State's tradition of hard-worn songwriters who share an equal love for folk and...

In “Crystal Beach Memories,” an animated video accessible at www.FunnyOrDie.com, 32-year-old singer-songwriter Hayes Carll remembers his early gigs at Bob’s Sports Bar and World Famous Grille, a Texas eatery that promoted his appearances with a sign...

If you prefer your country musicians to be poets with drinking problems rather than cowboys who drive SUVs, meet the aloof Hayes Carll.  This Texas bred singer-songwriter, whose easygoing demeanor is leftover from his years spent dwelling in shacks on the...

As with many a liberal arts student, Hendrix College in Conway prepared Hayes Carll for jobs waiting tables at Red Lobster, digging ditches and tending bar. But the graduate with a history degree and a minor in theater also learned how to think for...

Hayes Carll pines for lost youth differently than Tom Waits or The Ramones. (“Pine” isn’t really a verb you’d apply to the latter two.) Waits growled through the ramshackle original version of “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” and The Ramones sawed through...

Hayes Carll is easily misunderstood. A singer-songwriter with an eye for wry observation and a gift for clever couplets, Carll's new album, "Trouble in Mind," is the first indication The Woodlands-bred songsmith has a knack for keeping people on...

Time was you could use the phrase "Texas singer-songwriter" and there'd be no mistaking that you were talking about the literate, rough-hewn, folk- and blues-based songs of Lone Star troubadours like Rodney Crowell and Guy Clark. Over the past...

Hayes Carll is featured in No Depression's May-June (and final) issue.  Click on the links below to read this in-depth and fantastic article: Page One / Page Two / Page Three

ESSENTIAL "Bad Liver and Broken Heart" Authentic voices are so rare these days, it's easy to overpraise newcomers but Carll's debut ushers in a compelling major voice. Following in the tradition of his many Texas predecessors, Carll delivers a...

Religion is a regular theme in country music, but it isn't often you hear a country singer vowing to administer a beating to Christ, as Hayes Carll does in "She Left Me For Jesus." Carll isn't being blasphemous; he's simply singing smart, funny lyrics...

The Houston native cements his credentials as the next great Texas troubadour on his major-label debut, arriving in stores Tuesday. Like Guy Clark and Steve Earle, Carll has the Texas twang and lazy drawl to bring out the boot-stomping good ol’ boy in...

In today's fast-paced, super-connected wired world, the idea of regional scenes seems almost quaint, like rotary phones and 8-tracks. But, man, Hayes Carll sounds like Texas in the best way possible - his wit as pointed as a true cowboy's...

Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll comes from the same fertile territory that yielded such iconic troubadours as Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. On Trouble in Mind, his Lost Highway debut after two independently released albums, Carll...

Why we care: With a hang-dog delivery slathered in twang and tough luck, this eccentric Texan traverses the backwoods distance between the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan (with a little Roger Miller thrown in for comic relief). Singer-songwriters don't get...

On his Lost Highway debut, this Houston-based country-rock crooner covers Tom Waits' "I Don't Wanna Grow Up," but judging by the rest of "Trouble in Mind," it might be too late for Hayes Carll. The fine songwriting here, rich with Texas-music echoes,...

The first of many girls who whirl through Carll’s third album likes him to watch her naked. That makes her a drunken poet’s dream, to his mind, and this Texas troubadour’s happy to play that dreamer. Carll’s characters have problems with commitment,...

Texas troubadour Hayes Carll wanted to be a writer long before he wanted to be a musician. ``When I found that I could become a songwriter and not have to do 300 pages, but maybe achieve the same kind of thing in three minutes, I dove pretty heavily into...

Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard is alive and well, so there's no need to seek his replacement. If there were, though, fellow Texan Hayes Carll would do a fine job. In fact, Carll's Lost Highway debut opens with a song he co-wrote with Hubbard. "Drunken...

Heartaches, disappointment, perseverance and recovery are topics that Hayes Carll brilliantly examines in his strong new CD. Besides singing about all these with depth and conviction, the stories and lyrics in such songs as "Drunken Poet's Dream," "Bad...

Listen up, dusty songwriter freaks: I've made a major discovery. Texas troubadour Hayes Carll reminds me of so many of the greats, my head spins like it's full of whiskey. I hear John Prine, Todd Snider, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits (he covers a Waits...

With his first two albums, Flowers and Liquor and Little Rock, Hayes Carll joined the long line of take-no-prisoners Texas troubadours such as Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Steve Earle (the first two have already cowritten with him). Trouble in Mind...

Hayes Carll’s voice is a scraped-up Texas rasp. The music on his third album, “Trouble in Mind” (Lost Highway), has cleaned up a little — it’s his move to a major label — yet still sounds like roadhouse Americana: plinking banjo in some songs, honky-tonk...

It's hard to decide right away which is more impressive, this 28-year-old Texan's delightfully crafted tales of life in the bars and side roads of rural America or the vibrant music he couches them in, a rootsy, country-based stew thick with roadhouse...

Texas singer-songwriters aren't so much a genre as an infestation. They spring up like a hill of fire ants—overnight you could find a handful clogging up your empty stage and begging for a bar tab. You can't necessarily make a killing burning oil from...

Hayes Carll blasted his career out of a cannon in 2004. The Woodlands native’s sophomore effort, Little Rock – a salt vortex of machetes and memories that measured a young poet’s wanderlust against a seasoned brawler’s will – became the...

“I’m wild as a turkey under a Christmas moon / I’m as empty as my wallet on a Sunday afternoon.” That adroit couplet sums up Hayes Carll’s insurgent stance, now in full bloom on his pointedly titled third album. Carll’s devil-may-care spit and swagger...

With Trouble In Mind, Hayes Carll staggers back, safely, into the Americana spotlight with a healthy grin of world-weary songs and half-heartbreaking ballads. Following his self-released Little Rock won’t be easy, as it perched at the #1 spot on the...

Hayes Carll might be the perfect artist to introduce (or perhaps reintroduce) fans of pop country to genuine country music. On his third album, Trouble In Mind, Carll keeps things gritty enough to appeal to alt-country and traditional country purists...

Far too much of the country music coming out today is “successful” in achieving a very limited aim; to be enjoyable by leaning heavily on pop-rock conventions while using the lyrics to vaguely define the emotional point of the song and to provide just...

Hayes Carll is a Texas singer/songwriter, which is a categorical description that holds a lot of artistic weight. After all, this subset also includes Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt. And heck, let's not forget Willie Nelson and Waylon...

Willie Nelson. Shelby Lynne. Van Morrison. Hayes Carll. In order, new international releases by those four artists were rolled out by Lost Highway Records in March and early April. Country and pop music fans spanning several...

“I’m gonna holler / And I’m gonna scream / I’m gonna get me some Mescaline.” Picture Steve Earle at his booziest singing that line from “Drunken Poet’s Dream” and you’re most of the way to understanding what this third album from Stephen King’s favorite...

Hayes Carll sings about gamblers and ramblers, yet he flashes his cards right upfront on Trouble in Mind," his first major-label album and third overall. The 32-year-old Texan opens with "Drunken Poet's Dream," co-written with longtime Lone Star...

Music writer Andy Langer featured Hayes Carll in the April 8th revoew on NPR. The segment is 14 minutes long... Wanna skip straight to Hayes?  His review begins at 10:50 mintues. LISTEN NOW

Trouble in mind He was born in The Woodlands, but stints in other places have deepened Hayes Carll's outlook on life. And when it's time for the singer/songwriter to get busy, he often goes to a place or recalls a time — the unhappier, the better — to...

B+ Basic Story Um, how to describe? Dude from Texas with backward name plays country rock? The extra "l" is, presumably, for extra lovin'. Sample Grab "It's girls like this that keep me tryin' / She goes off like an...

Hayes Carll has just released his third album, Trouble In Mind. His first, Flowers And Liquor, for Compadre Records, was produced by Lisa Morales of Sisters Morales. His second, Little Rock, released independently, was produced by R. S. Field. One of...

Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll took an unusual road to success. Born in the suburbs of Houston, he moved to the Galveston area, of all places, to jump-start his career as a musician in his twenties. And it actually worked; Carll is finally enjoying the...

The Americana singer/songwriter rises from the Stephen King approved indie ranks to the major-label sweepstakes on his third release, and first for Lost Highway. It's a strong if characteristic collection of rugged country folk-rock sung with Hayes Carll'...

Behold a most uncommon pleasure: Romantic poetry cresting a wave of rapid-fire rock ’n’ roll. “I’ve got a girl out in Henrietta, and her love is like tornado weather,” Hayes Carll sings on the swelling cautionary tale “A Bad Liver and a Broken Heart.”...

Modern journalism is rife with incorrect uses of the word ironic (mostly I blame Alanis Morissette). I guess it’s become a pet peeve of mine. Which is why the first thing to grab my attention on Trouble In Mind was that the only song Hayes Carll...

Seems like every year I come to South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, I find myself penciling in a showcase by Hayes Carll. He's been threatening to make a new album for a while, and finally it's done -- and well worth the wait. At a midnight show on Cedar...

Check out a feature on Hayes Carll from SESAC Magazine. Click here to read.

Hayes Carll, who will release Trouble In Mind with Lost Highway on April 8, has received the stamp of approval from everyone's favorite horror author/music aficionado Stephen King. Click here to read King's praise for Carll and the author's other 2007...