By Paul T. Mueller
Singer-songwriter and Texas native Hayes Carll launched his Grateful for Christmas Tour with a couple of sold-out shows at Houston’s Heights Theater. The second, on Dec. 2, was a great time for all concerned. Carll, in fine voice and fine humor, performed only a couple of actual holiday songs (his own “Grateful for Christmas” and Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy.” But he threw in nice covers of John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison” and Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” as well as some others that he described as sort of holiday songs in that they at least mentioned drinking. Scattered throughout were funny and sometimes touching anecdotes from his years growing up in the Houston area (his parents were in attendance) – and frequent declarations of his gratitude for his audience.
Singer-songwriter and acoustic bassist Melissa Carper opened the show, accompanied by pianist Emily Gimble and fiddler Rebecca Patek. Highlights included a nice rendition of “Christmastime Is Here,” familiar from the holiday classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Carll opened his set solo with “Beaumont” (which is set in December) and then brought out the band (including guitarist Scott Davis, bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Mike Meadows, plus Patek and Gimble) for the lovely “Love Is So Easy.” He followed with longtime favorite (and Ray Wylie Hubbard co-write) “Drunken Poet’s Dream.” Others old and new ensued, before Hayes turned over the stage to his wife, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, and Gimble, for a theatrical and comically steamy duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Gimble followed with “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem,” accompanied by Carper and Patek.
Returning to the stage for more familiar tunes (“Jesus and Elvis,” “KMAG YOYO,” “Nice Things” and a few not so familiar, Carll closed the 22-song show with a fine rendition of the sad but sweet “Family Reserve,” a meditation on life and death by fellow Texan Lyle Lovett.