Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "'Drunken Poet's Dream' is rootsy and wry, with a tangle of fiddle and growling electric guitar encircling vivid lyrics about a woman who 'likes to lay naked and be gazed upon.' It sets the tone for 'Trouble in Mind,' a collection of rollicking country-rock tunes that build upon the Texas songwriting tradition of aw-shucks philosophy laced with subversive undertones. Carll sings waggish odes to drinking, broken hearts and the glories of the barroom music circuit, with a potent mix of deadpan self-deprecation and stinging pathos. 'Good Lord, I hope I get paid tonight,' he cracks in an easy, tuneful drawl on 'I Got a Gig,' banjo plunking along behind him. He offers a straight take on road weariness on the slow and sorrowful 'Don't Let Me Fall,' and comes at the same topic from a different direction on 'Knockin' Over Whiskey.' Like a true showman, Carll … saves the best for last, ending with the hilariously wrongheaded complaint 'She Left Me For Jesus,' promising, with tongue in cheek, fierce payback should he ever take his ex-girlfriend's advice and find the Lord."