By Paul T. Mueller
— The audience at Hayes Carll’s early set at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck in Houston on Feb. 1 got a little more than it paid for. The singer-songwriter, who grew up near Houston, put on a fine musical performance, but the set also included a comedy show and a magic act. More on those later.
Carll breezed through 14 songs, including material from his four CDs and a new song or two, accompanied by Kym Warner of the Greencards on mandolin and what looked like a bouzouki. Veteran musicians that they are, they moved easily from romantic songs (“Beaumont,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Chances Are”) to rocking road anthems (“Little Rock,” “I Got a Gig,” “Hard Out Here”) to flat-out funny stuff (“One Bed, Two Girls, Three Bottles of Wine,” co-written by Carll and Bobby Bare Jr.,) and Carll’s unique take on “I’ve Been Everywhere”).
Between songs, he told several long and very funny stories about growing up (turns out The Woodlands, an affluent planned community just north of Houston, was not without its “gang” issues), the perils of the road (why buying a van for your first East Coast tour from a used-car dealer in a Gulf Coast town might not be the wisest move), and his family (he claimed that his mother had advised him to pursue a career in folk music because he didn’t have a good enough backside to be a country music star).
Midway through the show, Carll called his 9-year-old son, Elijah, to the stage to make what he called his show business debut – several nifty card tricks, some involving audience participation. Dad proved to be as good at the second-banana role as he is in the spotlight. When Elijah’s act earned a wildly enthusiastic response, the senior Carll came back with a deadpan, “Now, let’s not get carried away.”
The evening’s biggest ovation followed “KMAG YOYO,” Carll’s raucous tale of military experiments with hallucinogens, which featured a couple of vigorous mandolin workouts by Warner. A few songs later, Carll closed with a brief encore. He dedicated the sweet and funny “Grateful for Christmas” to his parents, who were among several family members at the show, and finished up with “I’ve Been Everywhere,” featuring the refrain, “I’ve been to Houston, Houston, Houston, Houston… .” If the music thing doesn’t work out, Hayes Carll may have a future in stand-up comedy.
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