THE FRONT Q&A
‘ALONE TOGETHER,’ STILL
Hayes Carll, country/Americana/rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter and Hendrix College graduate (‘98), has had a busy couple of years, pandemic be damned. Carll capped off 2021 with “You Get It All,” a record that jumps to the head of the line of work by a musician with an enviable reputation built over nearly two decades of recording and touring. “You Get It All” opens with a satirical peek at planet Earth from the perspective of a disappointed female God and then settles in with relationship songs: the highlight being “In the Meantime,” a duet with Brandy Clark that calls to mind peak George Jones. “You Get It All” arrives after last year’s “The Alone Together Sessions,” where quarantined Carll revisited and reimagined a selection of his old songs. No surprise, then, that when we spoke to Carll late last year, the art of songwriting came up in conversation.
DAVID MCCLISTER
HAYES CARLL ON SANITY, SONGWRITING AND CONNECTING WITH PANDEMIC-ERA AUDIENCES.
Hayes Carll CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: My 2000 Gibson J-45. I bought it the day I made my first record, and it’s still my primary guitar.
We started to raise money for the band and crew. We did a Kickstarter. Then I started to do the livestream shows — the “Alone Together” sessions, every Tuesday. We ended up doing 67 episodes. It was a huge thing for me. It was a lifesaver. Even if I couldn’t see the audience, I knew something special was happening. Now I am touring, and every night I will run into a decent part of the audience that was there on those Tuesdays. They are telling me that was their lifeline, not feeling so alone. That’s very special to me. Talk about “In the Meantime,” the Brandy Clark duet, which sounds like an old school classic country song. How did that collaboration happen? I wanted to write a country song, a double entendre, heartbreak song. I just had the phrase “in the meantime” in my mind, and I had the chorus. I’d been saving that idea. I got together with Brandy and pitched it to her. We finished it together. I loved what we did. That is an interesting thing about songwriting: If I had written with anybody else, it wouldn’t be what it is. There’s some kind of magic and mystery that comes with collaborative work. You have to sync up and get on the same page. When you do, that’s an incredible feeling.
Before speaking about the new album, you CURRENTLY READING: “How to are back on the road now, right? Does it feel Write One Song” by Jeff Tweedy. normal yet? We’ve been at it for a minute. We had a few FAVORITE TOUR FOOD: It depends gigs over the summer. The last couple of on the city, but probably sushi. months we’ve been back on the road, eating not-the-best food and staying at Holiday Inn Express. Does it feel normal? Not really. There are some things that aren’t that different. Like riding a bike, I suppose. It is different from night to night. People seem hesitant. Definitely something as a nation happened. We underwent a Is “You Get It All” a record with a preconceived theme, or is it a huge change. record of the best songs you have on hand at the time? Every record, I’m expected to have a narrative, but sometimes that Are audiences the same as they were before? doesn’t exist. With this one, I think it was afterwards that I was lookI don’t know. I went to see a friend, BJ Barham, doing an American ing over the record and realized that these are songs about relationAquarium show. It was a show I wasn’t performing in. Going out again, ships. Whatever that relationship is, that’s the thing they all have in I found I’m more of an introvert than I realize. I am not used to being common. in crowds. I was used to being in my house with my wife, friends and children. [Our circle] got much smaller. Has your songwriting process changed much over the years? I’m just trying to figure shit out these days. Todd Snider has this exBut you didn’t stop completely from performing, did you? pression, “I don’t write to change minds but to ease my own.” When I I was out on tour in mid-March 2020 with the “Alone Together” tour. started, I was just writing because it was fun to be creative. More and A solo show was the idea. We were in Seattle and we canceled a show more I take songwriting a bit more seriously. It’s more important to and then had to cancel the rest of the tour. Clubs just started shutting me to have a point. I’m a lot more intentional than I used to be. I’m 45. down. We had no idea at the time how long it was going to go on. The That is just part of growth and where I am at. question is, how to make a living and keep my sanity? It was definitely scary. It was a very strange and, in a lot of ways, troubling time. — Werner Trieschmann ARKANSASTIMES.COM
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