Few things excite me these days more than a really great new album. When I was young my calendar was not set with days, months, and years but it unfolded as Christmas, Birthday, summer, family vacation, basketball season, spring break, and so forth. As I’ve gotten older that same excitement has worn down, I just had a birthday and if it wasn’t for a wonderful wife and five year old son, I may not have paid any attention to it. As adults we get busy, our calendars heavily crowded with this reminder or that bill due date, it seems as the years travel on the good stuff slowly gets squeezed out. I suppose it’s all part of the process. Though I would love to go back to the age of about eight or nine and have it be Christmas Eve. I fondly remember those moments, being so elated with the anticipation of presents that sleep wasn’t humanly possible. Sneaking up into the living room at two in the morning in order to get just one gratifying peek, waking a parent at three-thirty in hopes that maybe, just maybe we can start this Christmas day before the birds have even considering chirping. Nothing compares with those days, right?
However, one more reason I love music can be chalked up, a great new album is really exciting to me. Not Christmas Eve exciting but not bad all the same, especially for being thirty-two. It’s a bit of a method for me; a process and I will break it down for you. First, we have two types of new albums. 1. We already know the artist. This one is exciting for a couple of reasons. It’s like your favorite sports team, once the season is over, life goes on but you can’t wait for the next season to begin. So much hope and anticipation, can we win it all? How will so-and-so fit into the new lineup? A new album from Neil Young, The Counting Crows, Emmylou Harris, or John Hiatt is like that old ball club that has been with you for years. You sort of know what you’ll get - there will be some surprises, maybe some disappointments and there is that chance they will wow you beyond belief, which often happens with the greats. 2. New Artist, new album. This one exists because you’ve done some work, you’ve rolled up your sleeves and you’ve gotten dirty. Good for you. Maybe it was the radio, someone shared it with you, could have been a commercial, a movie, or perhaps you discovered this one all your own (which is the most rewarding) but however the discovery was made, it was made. The key is to listen to as much as you can before dropping the ten-fifteen bucks, thirty-second samples are no good, you need the full song and when do you buy? Few artists out there have the ability to get my money on that thirty-second sample. I need good solid evidence the album is legit; I need to feel warm and fuzzy about my purchase. Okay, there is the breakdown between the two types of albums. The next step is quite simple. I listen to the album completely, each track, every word and every second before listening to one song more than once. I believe we owe it to the artist to do this. Sure, once I’ve done that the album will have tracks in which get more plays than others but not in the beginning. I treat it like a movie or book. I wouldn’t read chapter five three times in a book before reading it all and I won’t do it with a new album.
The next album on this list was one of the most exciting I can remember in years. It caught me by surprise, I didn’t expect it to be as good as it has become.
#9 - Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind - 2008
If you like real country music, (I've decided to no longer be worried about offending anyones taste in music) not the twaddle that somehow passes itself off as country music today, which by the way is shocking, shameful, and dishonorable. But if you love Johnny Cash, Don Williams, Townes Van Zandt, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens, and so on, then you will LOVE Hayes Carll and Trouble In Mind. This album has some Texas outlaw feel to it but Hayes Carll does a fine job of changing directions. At times the album is just great rock-n-roll, other times the album has some country boy hick to it and then there are moments when the album is savvy and intelligent, poetic and beautiful. As is the case with track five, "Beaumont" a telling tale of lost love well told. Hayes covers a Tom Waits song, "I Don't Wanna' Grow Up" which in my opinion is one of the best covers of any songs I've ever heard. He gets a bit sacrilegious in the final track, "She Left Me For Jesus" but certainly means no harm. Trouble In Mind is a great country album, one of the very best in the last ten years.
Listen, we can't go back to being eight or nine, our calendars are grown up now but if you need a break, if you need something to excite you, something to accompany your next work commute, it really should be Trouble In Mind. Hayes Carll says it best in "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" - "I'll get old before I'm good at this, who's the President, what year is it? Doesn't anybody care about truth anymore, maybe that's what songs are for"
Watch Hayes sing "Beaumont" live, listen to "I Don't Wanna' Grow Up" and be sure and check out his website and albums.
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