Typically touring troubadour Hayes Carll used his downtime during the pandemic to record a new album, Alone Together Sessions, which will drop on Sept. 4. The 11-song album features acoustic versions of 10 of Hayes’ past songs, as well as a duet with wife Allison Moorer on Merle Haggard’s “That’s the Way Love Goes.”
“It’s probably good to pause every now and then, to take stock of everything,” says Hayes. “When you make your living playing out there for people, you’re constantly in motion. That momentum doesn’t leave much time for thinking about what happened, let alone what it all means. How often does someone get to go back in, change the rhythms, turn up guitars, shift the perspective of a lyric or the delivery of a vocal? The more I sang these songs, the more I learned about them.”
Produced by Darrell Scott, the new album includes fan-favorite tunes from Hayes’ past catalog, such as “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart,” “Wild as a Turkey” and “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” which features vocals from the song’s co-writer, Ray Wylie Hubbard. Hayes recorded his late-night performances from the solitude of his Nashville residence.
Alone Together Sessions Track List
- “Arkansas Blues”
- “Drunken Poet’s Dream”
- “Times Like These”
- “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart”
- “Down The Road Tonight”
- “That’s The Way Love Goes”
- “KMAG YOYO”
- “Bye Bye Baby”
- “Sake Of The Song”
- “Beaumont”
- “Wild As A Turkey”
Listen to “Down the Road Tonight” below.
photo by Jim Casey