Hayes Carll - Little Rock		Advertise Here!
Artist Hayes Carll CD Little Rock Person Interviewed Hayes Carll Interview Date April 30, 2005 Visit his web site Site Design & Hosting

Hayes Carll is, by his own admission, a bit of a gambler. And judging from the 28 year-old singer-songwriter’s stage presence, he must have one hell of a good poker face. Whether he’s facing an intimate listening room audience or a packed dance hall of noisy, potentially hostile patrons hungry for the headliner, it’s always the same Hayes: shambling more than walking on stage like a guy who’s just woken from a restless sleep with a horrible hangover, reaching for an acoustic guitar when a pot of black coffee seems more in order. “This guy,” you invariably think, “is a mess.” That’s when he shows his hand, and you find you’ve been hustled. “I like to watch him,” offers Hayes’ friend Ray Wylie Hubbard, a rumpled hustler of a troubadour in his own right, “because it’s kind of like watching two trains heading full speed toward each other on the same track: it’s just a matter of time. But he’s always very in control, even though sometimes he doesn’t give that appearance. He walks on that stage, and he just owns it — like it’s his time, his stage, and he has total control and keeps your attention his whole set. And I admire that.”

That’s no mere blurb or nod of approval from one Texas songwriter to another; it’s a dead-on portrait of the artist as a young man: off the tracks with a clear sense of purpose. As Hayes declares in “Wish I Hadn’t Stayed So Long,” from his second album, Little Rock, “I’m gonna burn down all my bridges, grab a car and drive away.” That’s not reckless;