Hayes Carll
(Lost Highway)
Hayes Carll has shambled through Texas and Arkansas, sharpening his observational talents and dulling his pain in the same bars along the way and translating his experiences into a couple of near-great indie albums. For his Lost Highway debut Carll spins his bald city tires down familiar country gravel roads, wheeling confidently between the gritty pathos of Steve Earle (“Drunken Poet’s Dream”), the sidelong humor of John Prine (“Girl Downtown”), the incisive inner truth of Townes Van Zandt (“Beaumont”) and the raspy drawl of Bobby Bare Jr. As a songwriter, Carll bends a knee at all the right altars (the aforementioned, plus Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Lyle Lovett) and overindulges in just the right amount of their communion wine to find his own unique voice and perspective among the influential congregation. Take the near from in front of the great, overtoke that line more than once and prepare to fall hard for Hayes Carll’s bar mirror ruminations on bruised love, liquored life and all teetering points between.
Standout tracks: “Girl Downtown,” “Drunken Poet’s Dream” BRIAN BAKER
