CELTIC CONNECTIONS: HAYES CARLL AND CORB LUND

In making his latest album, Hayes Carll says, “I just took some much-needed deep breaths and let them out on tape.” The resulting Lovers and Leavers, by an artist previously famed for roguish roots-rock numbers like ‘One Bed, Two Girls, Three Bottles of Wine’, stripped both emotions and accompaniment bare to the bone – and swept seven separate trophies at his home-town Austin Music Awards.
While Carll and Canada’s Corb Lund have double-billed before as musical merry pranksters, the latter’s current release, 2015’s Things That Can’t Be Undone, also addresses meaty topics, from post-war Iraq to personal bereavement, amid a potent brew of vintage blues-rock, honky-tonk and soul.