No matter where his career takes him, Hayes Carll always remembers and reminds the audience where he is from. “I was born in Houston,” says Carll, who grew up in The Woodlands.
“My mom grew up in Houston, I grew up in the suburbs but then Galveston and Bolivar and that’s where my career started and so Houston was always home base as far as my career. I’m very proud to have gotten my start here and still consider it home. When I introduce myself, I always say I’m from Houston, Texas and that will always be true even if I don’t reside there.”
Carll will return to Houston for his annual Grateful For Christmas show with his band, The Gulf Coast Orchestra on Thursday, December 4 and Friday, December 5 at The Heights Theaters. The shows will feature support from openers Tyler-James Kelly and Houston’s own Kam Franklin.
This fall Carll released his ninth album, We’re Only Human, an album in which each track addresses the growing pains of being alive with depth, poetry and humor. Though Carll has always possessed a real talent as a wordsmith, We’re Only Human delves even deeper into his own inner workings.
“This record just kind of stemmed from I keep running up against the same walls in life and not living with much ease or contentment as I would like and as I push 50, I think more and more about how to make whatever time comes from here more aligned with my art and my vision of how I would like life to go,” says Carll.
“I spent a lot of time expecting myself to have it all figured out and getting frustrated and beating myself up for not having it figured it out,” he says. “It took me a minute to recognize or remember that I’m not supposed to have it figured out. I’m not supposed to be perfect so just having some grace for myself there in this journey and it felt like a good starting point for refiguring anything going forward.”
Pushing a major milestone of a birthday, having a son that’s about to finish college and experiencing his second divorce pushed Carll to really challenge his own way of thinking about and approaching life and explore those concepts in his art.
“It was a time for me to reset and take stock so I started doing that work on a personal level and it found its way into my creative side and just became an interesting thing for me to write about navigating life and trying to do it to find some more peace and purpose.”
We’re Only Human rings with Carll’s inner voice and a clear intention in his songwriting exploring the journey of man from the beginning of time to modern day. He describes making the album as the first time in his career that set out to create with a clear theme and boundaries.
“In the past I just wrote songs, some of them were personal, some story songs, some observational songs just being silly. This was the first time I ever set out with parameters for what I was trying to do creatively and it gave me license to try and be more honest,” explains Carll.
“It’s a more internal record and so that was fun. That was my only prerequisite when I was writing was, did it feel honest and am I expressing what I want to express. As I was writing, I just tried to hang on to that as my guide post and it gave me the freedom to get creative with the way to best wanted to express those thoughts and feelings.”
Throughout the process, Carll agnowledged the importance of listening to one’s inner voice and not simply going through the motions, pushing down the reality of our feelings with distractions or self-numbing behavior.
“What I found in life is if you ignore stuff, it’s going to find a way to show up and it can either come in a way that you’re prepared for, you and embrace it and you learn stuff or it can come in a way the wrecks you and you don’t have the positives. I’ve lived through that enough to know that I need to start paying attention to what my inner voice was telling me because I wasn’t aligned in a way that I needed to be and it was just not serving me well.”
Finding, nurturing and protecting that inner voice became the driving force behind the record. Though the concepts can be heavy, Carll approaches it all with his signature humor and lightheartedness creating a real sense of community in this journey of life with great sing-a-longs like “Good People (Thank Me)” featuring clips from performances at Houston’s Mucky Duck, a venue that has been instrumental in shaping his career.
The experience of We’re Only Human culminates with the self motivational final track “May I Never” featuring contributions from Shovels & Rope, Gordy Quist, Darrell Scott, Nicole Atkins, Ed Jurdi and Carll’s old pal and Texas treasure, Ray Wylie Hubbard.
“That was a song that I wrote just about trying to hang on to my spirit and not compromise for the world and just another reminder to myself to hang on to my center. Advice always hits a little heavier when somebody you respect is giving it to you rather than just coming up with it on your own so I thought I’d recruit some people that meant a lot to me. Those are all people that I’ve known for decades and in one way or another have been significant in my life.”
One voice that is not on the record but clearly served as inspiration in his approach to blending the personal with the universal is his pal and mentor Todd Snider. “Todd was a hero and in a lot of ways sort of was a huge inspiration for how to be an artist and how to approach life and the craft. He was all in and that was something I always admired about him and never quite felt like I lived up.”
Carll describes his passing as a continued reminder that life is fleeting and we must do what’s best for our hearts and souls with our time on this planet. “He was always an amazing champion and supporter of my music and so many other peoples and it meant so much to me during his lifetime to have him encourage me, cheer me on and give me guidance. He was a guiding light on this record for sure for me.”
Reflecting on his almost 50 years, which he will mark with a celebration in Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl with Chaparelle and other special guests, Carll is quick to acknowledge all the support and help he has received along the way including at Galveston’s historic Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe where he “worked” with Rex “Wrecks” Bell.
“I use that term loosely,” he laughs about his “job” at the Old Quarter. “No one got paid but basically if you hung out long enough and he trusted you, you could get behind the bar and sling some beers but everybody that was there just wanted to be around that energy, spirit and music.”
The Old Quarter continues to serve as a quintessential stop for singer songwriters and breeding ground for new talent. “That place became my school, my church and my home. It changed my life and Rex changed my life in so many ways. If I hadn’t found the Old Quarter when I did, don’t know that I would have a career and if I did, it certainly wouldn’t be anything like it has turned out to be.”
Hayes Carll will perform with Tyler-James Kelly on Thursday, December 4 and Kam Franklin on Friday, December 5 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19, tickets $42. For more information visit www.hayescarll.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.