Hayes Carll returns again
The Working Songwriter
Joe Pug
4.9 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our guest this week on The Working Songwriter hails from The Woodlands, Texas. Hayes Carll is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller whose sharp wit and plainspoken poetry first broke through with his 2002 debut, 'Flowers & Liquor.' That was followed by 2008's 'Trouble in Mind,' which delivered the hit "She Left Me for Jesus" and cemented his place among the genre's most distinctive voices. Carll has toured with artists like Old Crow Medicine Show, Todd Snider, and Alison Krauss and his songs have been covered by Miranda Lambert, Lee Ann Womack, and Kenny Chesney. He's recorded for Lost Highway, Dualtone, and Thirty Tigers and he's performed on stages from Newport Folk Festival to Austin City Limits and the Grand Ole Opry.
'Rolling Stone' praises his work for its "razor-sharp wit and lived-in warmth," while NPR notes his "keen eye for the human condition wrapped in disarming charm." 'American Songwriter' calls him "one of Americana's most reliable truth-tellers."
Our show's most frequent guest pops by to discuss his latest album "We're Only Human" and finding a creative voice that's more true to himself.
Interested in sponsoring us? Contact BGS: https://bit.ly/sponsorBGSpods
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to the working songwriter, the show where today's best songwriters come to talk shop. |
| 0:20.2 | I'm your host, Joe Pug. |
| 0:22.0 | Each episode here, we host a distinguished guest, and we ask them to go deep on their |
| 0:26.9 | inspiration, on their process, on the general ups and downs of making a life in music. |
| 0:32.3 | So, whether you're a grizzled veteran, going over your rider with a checklist to make |
| 0:37.3 | sure the promoter |
| 0:38.1 | got everything or else a scrappy upstart, begging for a $10 meal buyout. This is your show |
| 0:44.7 | because ultimately it is what every writer seeks most, an ironclad excuse to put off |
| 0:50.0 | actually writing. |
| 1:12.9 | Hey, everybody, it's the third Friday of January, 26, and I thank you for being here. |
| 1:14.9 | This week's show is brought to you by Banzugal. |
| 1:22.5 | Built by musicians and for musicians, Banzugal is an all-in-one platform to build a beautiful website for your music. |
| 1:27.6 | I'm old enough to remember when you had to pay somebody called a web developer to get a website made. |
| 1:34.1 | It would always be some guy named Fabian who drove a souped-up Dodge Neon, painted Matt Black, |
| 1:39.1 | and who was always trying to sell you bottles of THC-infused grape fanta. |
| 1:44.9 | An old Fabian would charge you about a thousand bucks for a website that would be obsolete in six months. |
| 1:48.0 | But it's the future now, you guys, that's not how it works anymore. |
| 1:50.0 | We're allowed to have nice things now. |
| 1:52.1 | One of those nice things is Banzugal. |
| 1:58.4 | For over 20 years, Banzugal has made it easy to build a stunning website and online store for your music. |
| 2:03.0 | Now they've added a brand new EPK plan so that musicians can create a professional single page electronic press kit in minutes. All the features you need to design an |
| 2:08.8 | EPK are already built in. Music players, images, text bio, video embeds, a gig calendar, and access to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Joe Pug, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Joe Pug and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.