Hayes Carll Opens White Water Tavern Stand with New Songs, Local Stories

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll returned to The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Ark. on Tuesday, March 28 for his first show at the venue in 12 years. It was night one of a three-night stand at the venue, which he called one of the greatest in the world.

Carll is one of a few artists I’ve heard say that about The White Water Tavern while attending shows at the tiny bar venue and you can tell the artists are being truthful and not just saying it because they’re performing there because I don’t ever hear similar things from artists at other venues. The White Water Tavern with its intimate setting – it’s literally just a small stage in the corner of a barroom – and passionate music lovers who attend shows there really is a magical place.

I’ve seen Carll a few times at The Revolution Room in Little Rock, but this was my first time seeing him at White Water. He’s one of my favorite active singer-songwriters in country music or Americana (I’m fine calling his music either of those genres) and he always puts on a terrific show and tells interesting, often funny stories, especially about his ties to the area. Carll is from the Houston area of Texas and I believe splits his time between Austin and Nashville when not touring, but he attended college at Hendrix University in Conway, Ark. (which is literally a mile and a half from my house) – about 30 miles north of Little Rock.

Carll’s set on night one at White Water (unfortunately the only night of the stand I’ll be able to see) focused a lot on his new stuff – playing six songs off his most recent album You Get It All from 2021 – including opening the show with that album’s title track.

Most of the tracks from the recent album were performed in the first half of his show on Tuesday night and were: “None’Ya,” “Any Other Way,” “Different Boats,” “She’ll Come Back to Me” and “To Keep From Being Found.”

The audience didn’t seem to mind the surplus of newer songs – and I know I didn’t mind. Carll simply doesn’t make disappointing albums and this one came out since the last time I got to see him live see these were all live debuts for me.

Carll sprinkled some recent, but not as recent songs in his first five or so songs performed on his set on Tuesday like “If I May Be So Bold” and “What It Is” from 2019’s What It Is and “Love is So Easy,” from 2016’s stripped-down Lovers and Leavers.

The show really got into a groove when Carll performed fan-favorite “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” from 2008’s Trouble In Mind, my personal favorite Hayes Carll album. Immediately going from “Love Is So Easy” to “Drunken Poet’s Dream” without so much as a pause in the music was one of the real highlights of the evening and probably ended up being the loudest sing-along from the faithful audience.

Carll told the crowd a story about meeting one of his heroes Ray Wylie Hubbard while working as a bartender in a Texas bar before covering Hubbard’s “Mississippi Flush.”

Another highlight of Carll’s night one at White Water was when he invited the show’s opener Melissa Carper, who came to Arkansas by way of Nebraska, for a cover of Arkansas’ finest Johnny Cash with a beautiful rendition of “I Still Miss Someone,” for my money Cash’s most underrated song. The two then turned Carll’s “Girl Downtime,” from Trouble In Mind, into a duet.

Carll told a couple of stories about his time in Arkansas before performing two Arkansas songs: “Arkansas Blues,” which he said he wrote after performing his first paying gig with some college buddies in a supper club outside of Conway, and “Little Rock,” which is the absolute perfect song to see live while attending a show in Little Rock.

Carll followed his Arkansas songs with a three-song tribute that included “Sake of the Song,” off Lovers and Leavers, the rocking “KMAG YOYO” with a bit of Waylon Jennings’ “T for Texas” thrown in the middle, and then the band left the stage leaving Carll alone for a solo performance of his lovely “Beaumont,” which is potentially his greatest song (though many songs are in contention for that).
Carper opened the show with her old-timey, rural style of country music with her upright bass and guitar accompaniment from Mose Wilson.

Carper would perform tracks off her three solo albums to date: Arkansas Bound (2015), Daddy’s Country Gold (2021) and Ramblin’ Soul (2022). Among the highlights of Carper’s set was the cute “Would You Like to Get Some Goats,” a paean to her old van “My Old Chevy Van,” the local-flavored “Arkansas Hills” and a couple of songs that show off her sense of humor in “Boxers on Backwards” and “Christian Girlfriend.” Wilson also got a chance to show off his chops with the excellent “I Don’t Need You” off his self-titled 2021 album.