Music Review

Trouble in Mind (2008)

EW's GRADE
A-

Details Release Date: Apr 08, 2008; Lead Performance: Hayes Carll; Genres: Folk, Rock

Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll makes nouveau-outlaw country, poetic diction delivered with a rasp (a lover who ''likes to lay naked and be gazed upon,'' indeed) on Trouble in Mind. His best melodies are honky-tonk lamentations, with detours into banjo-plunking balladry (''Girl Downtown'') and Stones-y rock (''Bad Liver and a Broken Heart''). The creator of one of the year's best country albums thus far, Carll also covers Tom Waits (''I Don't Wanna Grow Up''), but his own irreligious doggerel — ''She Left Me for Jesus,'' sure to get him shunned in Nashville — beats Waits by a mile. A-
DOWNLOAD THIS: Preview ''She Left Me for Jesus'' on Amazon.com

Originally posted Apr 11, 2008 Published in issue #987 Apr 18, 2008 Order article reprints

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