Hayes Carll Country a review by Patricia Marie Budd
Hayes Carll’s CD Trouble in Mind is soft, sultry and sexy. It bears the rough, rugged edge of a restless man in love and lonely both searching and scared. Hard drinking men coupled with bohemian women swirl and rage in time to Hayes Carll’s beat tempered by the softness of love’s innocence, loyalty and forgiveness. This is a CD of love bearing the soul of the kind of man women want to envelope, love, smother and hold. Trouble in Mind opens with “Drunken Poet’s Dream” in which a “woman as wild as Rome” seduces and lures the speaker into the sort of debauchery any man would willing sell his soul to experience. She warns him of her intentions by announcing “you be the sinner honey I’ll be the sin” and that the rewards of glory are not for them: “all these people going to heaven are just in our way.” This drunken cynical theme repeats itself with great variety in “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart” (track 4); “Beaumont” (track 5); “Wild As A Turkey” (track 8); “Lover Like You” (track 10); “Knockin’ Over Whiskey” (track 12) and “She left Me For Jesus” (track 14). Anticipate earthly pleasures when listening to this CD! “It’s A Shame”(track 2) appears to slow the pace but after a few bars increase in speed. It speaks of bad timing and a longing for the one who got away. The line “kissing for hours underneath that sweet magnolia” suggests what could have been. We’ve all met that someone each of us would have loved to be with. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, or reasons we’d prefer not to recognize, we allow that person, that potential experience to pass. In retrospect I’m sure most of us can say the same, it truly is a shame. Innocence and naivety reign in track 3, “Girl Downtown”. Not all relationships turn sour or lead one down the path of ill repute. Katie, with “freckles on her nose, pencils in her pockets and ketchup on her clothes” is the small town beauty whom young boys long to date. Billy, “slower than a fall” being the one who “cain’t buy no ring” is the perfect match. When Hayes Carll sings, “maybe we could be the one” he is no longer singing of the drunk or cynical. Instead his words ring of promise for the future. “Don’t Let Me Fall” speaks of need and dependence on another. Track 9 is the voice of a broken down, disheveled man reaching out to the woman he loves, begging for help. With out her love and support he may never be able to resurrect what strength of spirit he once had. As “one hand holds the bottle, one hand holds (his) shame” this man hit rock bottom. Can one truly help and support one in this circumstance? Not if his one hand refuses to let go of the bottle. To him I wish good luck. To her, question if this is really what a woman should do. Yet, he is asking for help. Perhaps he is finally ready to get up again. If not, it will be the end of him. Forgiveness and the loyalty of a steady lover is the crux of “Willing To Love Again”. Ironically, and apropos, this is track 13, the cursed number. “How’d you get so unlucky girl?” questions a fully aware scoundrel who may, for the first time, be seeing the truth of the woman he can never leave and who will never leave him. Recognizing her faithful nature he utters in wonder, “And still across my floor you stand willing to love again.” She may be unlucky but he is the luckiest man on earth! Not every track espouses or laughs at the follies of love. “I got a gig” is black comedy, a humorous look at the life of the bar gig. Playing “six nights a week in a neon flame” is highly suggestive of the lively life presented to musicians forced to perform in dark and dingy drinking establishments for a scant living. “Ah, Lord, I never thought I’d see these things.” What things: “a barefoot trooper with a pistol up his sleeve”, “pills in the tip jar” and “blood on the street”. One can easily imagine the desolate life of “playing for one’s supper”. Yet with such an upbeat rhythm one wants to dive in. A man could easily suffer that life for a year or two and walk away wiser. In “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart” (track 4) Hayes Carll asks, “Don’t nobody care about truth anymore?” This CD is in answer to that. Trouble in Mind is the honest expression of a man’s soul. “Maybe that’s what songs are for” – maybe this is what Hayes Carll is for! How does one describe Hayes Carll’s style? I asked my husband what he thought: “Would you call him Country Rock? Hillbilly Rock? Alternative Country? Simon replied, “Texas Country” but even that didn’t work for me, not being Texan and all, so I answered my own question: “He’s Hayes Carll Country.”5/8/2011 8:18 PM (GMT-04:00)
Trouble In Mind
release date 4/8/2008