Description
There’s a whole world out there waiting full of stories to be told,” sings Hayes Carll on his latest record, over a locomotive drum-and-upright bass shuffle that’s part Tennessee Three, part Blonde On Blonde. For What It Is, the Texas songsmith marshals all his storyteller modes. And maybe to tap into the aforementioned world of stories, he’s brought in other writing voices, more than usual. Foremost is singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, his fiancée, who co-produced What It Is and co-wrote half its 12 songs.
Having rediscovered his split-lipped humour, and working with simple, yet propulsive arrangements, this is a league leader back in game shape. It’s a master class in country songwriting, a series of lessons about how to work the expected tropes into what feel like as-yet-undiscovered shapes. Like the work of another artist who recently envisioned a velvet Elvis, it’s songwriting that doesn’t pander to mainstream country, alt-country, so-called Americana, indie-folk, or what-have you. It just tells its story, indelibly.
