Joshua Hayes Carll, better known professionally as Hayes Carll, is a well-known award-winning American singer-songwriter from Texas. Carll is widely acknowledged for his straight speaking poetry and sarcastic humour, which he uses in his roots-oriented songwriting. Carll released his debut album, Flowers & Liquor, in 2002 that was positively received by many.
He was voted Best New Act by the Houston Press soon after the release and since then he has been compared to many high profile Texas artists such as Townes Van Zandt.
Carll’s second album, Little Rock, was released in 2004 and was the first self-released album to reach No 1 on the Americana Chart. Hot on the heels of this achievement, Carll signed a deal with Lost Highway records and released his next album, Trouble in Mind. It was ranked No 60 of the year by The Village Voice and spawned the track ‘She Left Me For Jesus’, which was the Americana Music Association Song of the Year in 2008.
2011 saw the release of KMAG YOYO & Other American Stories; the album was incredibly successful and was nominated for Best Album by the Americana Music Association in 2011. Spin voted it No 3 in the category of Best Country/Americana. Following the success of the album, Carll left his label and headed into the studio once more to record his next album, Lovers and Leavers. It was released in 2016 to critical acclaim on his own Highway 87 Records. In 2016, Carll was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Song for his track, ‘Chances Are’.