Hayes Carll - Little Rock

Genre country Publisher Highway 87 Music External Links Official Website

Great musicians here: the guitarist Kenny Vaughn, who plays in Marty Stuart's band, provides beautiful accompaniment. Allison Moorer pitches in on vocals. As for Carll himself, he's a fine, good-humored singer-songwriter, and Little Rock reveals him as a first-rate tunesmith operating in the area triangulated by blues, southern rock and country. There are hints of pub-rock and ragtime, and it's a compliment to say that this Texas-bred performer would have been right at home on the old Excello label with Slim Harpo.

It's another example of how country music has become an absorptive genre. Those who say that all country sounds the same, or that its practitioners are operating outside the mainstream in some red-state hell, are simply missing the point. Carll's lyrics are consistently pointed and funny, as here: "Here I am in Music City, lost hearts and neon signs/And I can't seem to remember what I came so far to find." Or this, from "Down the Road Tonight": "Van Zandt and groupies, guitar slingers/Michael Jackson peaked with Thriller." Sounds accurate to me.

The great Guy Clark co-writes one with Carll, the title track, an evocative minor-key tune. "So take me to a rivertown where you can't tell night from day." That could be Memphis, New Orleans or even Little Rock--all places Carll seems intimately familiar with.

"Good Friends" is nice and ragtimey, a story about time passing by: "Well Doug, he went to prison for selling all his pot." "Sit In With the Band" is all about breaking down boundaries, as Carll sings "I don't care if it's backwoods country, I don't care if it's rock and roll." The closing track, "Chickens," is real bayou blues with some great chicken-picking guitar. And chickens they scratch and peck, and you can also eat 'em.

A wonderful album. Carll even put it out on his own label, so the man is possessed of the true independent honky-tonk spirit. Reviews of his Nashville shows this year have been uniformly positive, so catch him next time he comes to your rivertown. Right up there with releases by Gary Allan, Deana Carter and Reckless Kelly as one of the finest country albums of the year.