Adam Carroll

"Adam .. Carroll just released Live At Flipnotics, and it .. makes a perfect .. introduction to one of the hippest songwriters on the Texas music landscape."
William Michael Smith, Houston Press - Houston Press

"Among singer-songwriters, Adam Carroll is probably Austin's best-kept secret. His tunes are marvels of economy; .. constantly inventive and decidedly offbeat .. Live at Flipnotics offers a typically low-key yet inviting overview of his career. With Scrappy Jud Newcomb on guitar, he sparkles .. "
Jim Caligiuri, Austin Chronicle

- Austin Chronicle

Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor - Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe - Galveston, TX
Written by Daniel Barker

"This night was a treat for any fan of the Texas singer-songwriter genre. It
is apparent that these two gentlemen are friends and inspire one another
to elevate their beloved craft of songwriting .. each of these men are solid musicians as well." - Houston Music Review

"Adam Carroll's "Live at Flipnotics" album is one of the best records I've listened to in a long time. .. a month after I put "Live at Flipnotics" in my car's CD player, it had yet to be removed. You can now officially call me hooked. Carroll .. has delivered a live album that one could essentially equate to that of ...a "greatest hits" compilation as it spans his career .. performed with "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb, Beaver Nelson and special guest, Matt The Electrician. The result is an album that is lively, thoughtful, playful, insightful and even introspective."
Stewart Smith, Tyler Morning Telegraph - Tyler Morning Telegraph

Adam Carroll: Slow Burn
by Steve Circeo

I sat down with Adam Carroll after a weeknight show at Gruene Hall. It had been one of those small acoustic shows in the bar area, and Adam had invited a few guests join him, most notably Mark Jungers. The majority of the forty or so people who were in attendance were there to listen to the music. That's my kind of show.

We did the interview at one of the picnic tables in the dancehall area, Townes Van Zant playing in the background.

Do you have any particular good memories of growing up in Tyler?
When I left [laughing]. Nah, it's a good place to grow up, it's a pretty town, but not much of a music scene unless you're a christian artist, so I left when I was 21 or 22.

Your official bio says that you decided on a career as a songwriter in Junior College. True?
I just started playing open mics about that time. I didn't ever really know that I was going to be able to make a living at this. I entered this contest in Dallas, at this place called Poor David's Pub, I did some songs there, and he started giving me openers. I started feeling that I liked … that it felt good to do it, you know, in a place like that. I'd go see people there that I looked up to, so that's kinda when I got the itch.

You’ve released three studio albums, all produced by Lloyd Maines. How did you meet up with him?
I was playing Larry Joe Taylor's Music Festival in Meridian back in 1997. Lloyd was playing there with Terri Hendrix. These DJs in Dallas had picked some of us to play what was kinda like an Up-and-Coming Songwriter's Night at the festival. It was me, Terri, Owen Temple, and a couple other people, this guy named Scotty Melton, and we all got to do a couple songs. A friend of mine had given Lloyd a tape of me, but when he heard me play live, he really liked it, said he'd help me out.

Adam performs with Scrappy Jud Newcomb
YouTube video by zoeloe07
You usually play solo acoustic shows, right?
Right, or sometimes with a sideman. I've been playing with a few bands here and there, but mostly it's solo.

Do you ever feel the urge to beef up the instrumentation in your music?
I think some people can do that really well. I'd like to, but I can pretty much only do what I can do. That's pretty much it.

I saw you do a show at Casbeers with Susan Gibson. Do you and Susan play together a lot?
We've played together a quite a few times. I used to open up for her old band, The Groobees, you know, back in the day. We've done a few three- and four-show runs, got to be pretty good friends, so we've written some songs. Me, her and Mark Jungers do shows sometimes.

Hanging out in Mark Jungers' garage?
Hanging out in Jungers' garage.

Are there any stories you can tell about that garage?
Not that I can tell in an interview. [Laughs.] We call it "The Garage Majal."

You've been compared with John Prine. Have you ever met him?
Never met John Prine. I met his guitar player one time. I went and saw him play at John T. Floore's, and I went back there, hung out with his guitar player. We all thought he was gonna come and say hello, but he stayed in his trailer.

Slaid Cleaves recorded your song “Race Car Joe” for his album Unsung. How did that come about?
I think he had it in mind to do all those songs. He wasn't sure he was gonna put it on there, and then, at the last minute, he decided to go ahead and do it. I thought he did a real good job with the songs on that record.

Has anyone else recorded your tunes?
Roger Marin up in Canada recorded "Blondie and Dagwood" [on his album High Roads] and The Resentments, you know, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Jon Dee Graham, and those guys, Scrappy put my song "Ricebirds" on a Resentments record [On My Way to See You]. That's pretty much the extent of the covers. [Laughs.] Thus far. It's a big honor when someone else records one of my songs, actually. I've always thought that I was more of a songwriter, first and foremost, so it'd be nice if people did a lot more of them.

Do you ever get the urge to go to Nashville and be a part of that machine?
I don't think so. That kind of style is not really my style. They seem to follow whoever's the big hit at the time. That'd be okay, but I just don't think that's in the cards for me.

Who wrote a song about Odysseus first, you ("Home Again") or Brian Keane ("Odysseus")?
I wrote mine first, but Brian's song is just great. He's a really good songwriter.

I noticed that you only have a few songs on your records that are cowritten. Do you prefer to write alone?
I've been doing more cowriting lately, actually. I kinda like it, but I think it really just depends on what the song calls for. Hayes Carll does a song called "Take Me Away" [on his album Little Rock] and I wrote that with a guy named John Evans. So there's one we wrote together, but not in mind that anyone would cut it, we just kinda wrote it.

Do you ever set out to write a song with someone else, or does it just kinda happen?
Well, I've had a lot of songs lately where I've had half songs, pieces of songs, and usually half a song works best, where I can take it to somebody and say, "Hey, what do you think of this?" Then they take it and put their twist on it.

So, do you find yourself writing the lyrics first, or the melody first, or do they come out together?
Usually with me it's lyrics first. Sometimes I'll play with melodies, but, in general, I'm more of a lyric guy.

Do you have a favorite song you've written?
I think that "Erroll's Song" is probably my favorite. It's pretty close to my heart. Erroll was a big influence on me as a teenager. I went duck hunting with him and stuff. It meant a lot for me to write that song and for him to be able to hear it. It's one of those songs that I never get tired of playing. It's special to me.

Do you have any songs you've recorded that you wish you hadn't?
[Laughs.] I pretty much like all the ones I've recorded. There's a few that, you know, I don't really play much any more, for the sole reason that I just have more songs that I like to play now. Now there are some that I wrote a long time ago that I'm glad I didn't record. That's why it was nice to have someone like Lloyd to go through the songs and be honest about whether he thought they should go on the record or not. That really helped, having a coach like that to help me out. He even helps out with some of the lyrics, like, 'What if you said it this way?" and I'd put that in there. So, he does that really well, and not just because he's trying to be clever, but he's just trying to help.

How special was it to have your grandfather, Ray Davidson, play saxophone on your last record, Far Away Blues?
It was cool. He really liked seeing the studio process, because, you know, the last time he played on a record, the technology was not near what it is now. He was impressed by that. Lloyd, actually, at a Terri Hendrix show, met my grandparents. At the time I having a hard time putting together a new record, because my first two records, I had kinda written all those songs when I was younger, but with Far Away Blues I had the purpose of writing to make a record, so I really had to work at it. Lloyd got to talking with my granddad, and Lloyd — he knew I was having trouble writing — said, "Why don't you just write the record around him?" And that was the impetus I needed to write that record. So there's another thing Lloyd did to help the process.

You recently recorded a new record. Did Lloyd produce that one, too?
No, the producer was a Canadian guy named Scott Nolan. We just got it done. Did it in Mark Jungers' garage. It's a little more lo-fi than the other ones, but it's still basically the same feel. We'll probably release it sometime in 2008. It's a good record. I like the songs and I enjoyed making it.

Why did you decide to go with a different producer?
The only reason was because I really like Scott. He's doing a song on the new Hayes Carll record, "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart," and we were up in Canada, when I was out on tour with Graham Weber, and Scott said, "Hey, man, let's make a record." So we just kinda followed the muse, got inspired. It wasn't really a conscious decision — well, it was a conscious decision — but everything just kind of fell into line. I wasn't looking for another producer, it just happened.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope I'm still playing, but any day above ground's a good one. I'm not even worried about it right now. But, you know, I'd like to ... I've have ambitions to play better rooms, get bigger crowds, but I mean that stuff's just icing on the cake, you can't plan that out. Some people can, depending on how their record's doing, and the timing of it, but I think my deal's more of a slow burn.

A slow burn. I've been to a few Adam Carroll shows now, and there are always people singing along with the songs. Not singing out loud, like fans do at Ragweed shows, but just listening and silently mouthing the words along with Adam as he slowly burns his way to the top.


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- Texas Music Times

KEEP TUNESMITH ADAM CARROLL'S FAR AWAY BLUES CLOSE BY

By ANDREW DANSBY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Far Away Blues - Adam Carroll - Blue Corn Music - 3 stars

Adam Carroll is the quiet gem among the Texas singer/songwriter set, a smart, wry tunesmith who suggests John Prine if Prine's first job had been on a farm instead of at the U.S. Postal Service.

Carroll doesn't scream for your attention, but give him your ear and he'll charm you up and down. He sing-speaks with rounded vowels and clipped consonants; it's not a commanding voice, but it's warm, expressive when it needs to be and impossible to ignore.

It also fits his tunes to a T. Carroll casually introduces these 12 songs by title before he starts to strum. Opener Alright is a shuffling charmer full of late-night neon imagery. ``If I could hold on to you now like I held on to you then/I wouldn't be a creature of the night, I'd be an angel of the wind/ Well, I'll see you in my dreams while I hold on to this bar/ Do you ever think about me when you're looking at the stars,'' he sings.

Likewise Picture Show says lots with a little, Carroll putting across uncomfortable solitude without brooding: ``I hate going to the picture show alone,'' he states matter-of-factly.

Carroll benefits from being one of the gazillion Texas songwriter types to fall under musician/producer Lloyd Maines' generous wing.

Some Celtic flavors in the middle of the album are a little jarring, but by and large Maines dresses these songs lightly and sprightly, with just enough pluck to accentuate Carroll's lyrical and vocal playfulness, but not so much as to smother his delicate sound.

It's hard to picture drunken rabble-rousers clinking longnecks to Carroll's songs. It's easier to picture Carroll doing this quietly, and successfully, for decades.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/music/cdreviews/3297886.html - Houston Chronicle

ADAM CARROLL
Singer/Songwriter
Tyler, TX; 1975 -

"Far Away Blues" is the third studio album from San Marcos, Texas based singer/songwriter Adam Carroll. "Far Away Blues" showcases the idiosyncratic songwriting style that has endeared Adam to both younger and older Texas music fans and has promoted critics to compare Carroll with John Prine, Butch Hancock, Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider and Bob Dylan.

"Far Away Blues" is once again produced by legendary Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Pat Green, Joe Ely), and retains the intimacy of Carroll's previous albums while filling the sound out significantly. The songs on "Far Away Blues" are Carroll's strongest to date and deal primarily with the ideas of community and family. Adam's grandfather, Ray Davidson, contributes to the family vibe by adding his saxaphone to the mix. Texas songwriting legend Ray Wylie Hubbard lends his pen and voice to the cause by co-writting "Last Day Of Grace" and duetting with Adam on the same. "Far Away Blues" represents a huge leap forward for Carroll, who has spent the last five years on the road building a large and loyal fan base. He will be touring nationally to support the album.

Born and raised in Tyler, TX, Carroll discovered early on that his hometown offered little in the way of a music scene to nurture his earliest attempts at songwriting. In fact, it was easier to attend junior college for seven years than it was finding work as an aspiring songwriter. Nevertheless, it was in Tyler where he first gained exposure to the singer/songwriters who would help him find his own artistic voice. Particularly noteworthy was Terry Allen’s Lubbock (on Everything), a record that "blew me away and opened my mind," says Carroll, "because it showed me that songs could be really weird and really funny, but still be true."

The same could certainly be said about Lookin’ Out the Screen Door. The by-product of rigorous touring and consistent exposure to other songwriters, Screen Door, like South of Town, also benefits from the sparse production of Lloyd Maines (as well as the tastefully understated accompaniment of Maines on steel and baritone guitar and Bukka Allen on accordion and Hammond B3). In the end, though, the secret to Screen Door’s power can be found in Carroll’s stronger artistic voice. Like his debut, it’s a "powerful, humor-laced character study of small-town heroes and misfits" (Malcolm Mayhew, Fort Worth Star-Telegram), invested with the pathos of the best writing. It’s little surprise that he’s earned enviable comparisons to the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, John Prine, and even Bob Dylan. Like those songwriters, Carroll uses ironic (but heartfelt) humor to leaven his sometimes personal, usually emotional, and always poignant observations. Make no mistake, Adam Carroll is one of the most promising and original young songwriters to emerge in quite some time. And with his first tour of the Southeast scheduled for later in the year – including his debut gig at Nashville’s fabled Bluebird Lounge – it won’t be long before Adam Carroll ceases to be Central Texas’ best kept secret.

"Someday, if you're very, very good, say your prayers, eat your vegetables, and study at the feet of the masters - Townes, Prine, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Dylan and Woody - someday, you might get to write one song as good as Adam Carroll."

--Tim Steele, KFAN Texas Rebel Radio

http://www.lonestarmusic.com/artists.asp?id=28# - www.LoneStarMusic.com

FAR AWAY BLUES • Adam Carroll

Is it the water? Or the lack of it? Maybe it's the dust. Or the sky. I've heard that if you stand on a tuna can in Lubbock, you can check out the weather in Austin. Whatever it is, Texas has produced a string of superior singer-songwriters that, while they are no carbon copies of one another, sound distinctively...well...Texan. Robert Earl Keen, Nancy Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, Lyle Lovett, the list is long and growing. If you haven't already, add to that dinstinguished and distinctive lineage Adam Carroll, whose third release, Far Away Blues is a lovely "wish you were here" postcard of an album. Like other Texas singer-songwriters before him, Carroll is a storyteller--a canny observer of the quotidian detail and sympathetic chronicler of the modest life. His songs, like many a Texas troubadour before him, are pleasingly direct and sometimes spiced with a generous pinch of humor.

On Far Away Blues, producer Lloyd Maines for the most part lets Carroll's songs speak for themselves, without extraneous production to get in the way of their sweet simplicity or Carroll's honest delivery. On the contrary, Maines attempts to achieve a homey feel in details like having Carroll say the name of each song before it starts. I'm not sure that it actually adds to the sense of genuineness--sometimes it feels a bit like a distraction--but there are plenty of other decisions around instrumentation and arrangements that do support the folksy, backporch feel. Instrumentation, for example, tends to stay solidly in the folk, country, and bluegrass arena with mandolin, fiddle, and slide guitar, while occasional forays into celtic or classical settings are suggested by the songs themselves and not randomly applied.

What is striking about Carroll's songwriting is that while he definitely deals in classic Texas images--drinking in bars, highways, cars, hillbillies--he does so with a light touch and a gentle heart. The album exhibits more love than edge, without seeming maudlin, and there's a strong sense that Carroll feels genuine tenderness for his characters and these places, even when he's poking gentle fun:

Lester's old but he plays till ten
Got a pacemaker and a mandolin
He put Kelly tires on your brand new cars
He doesn't like to sing at the goddamn bars

At the AFL-CIO rubber division don't you know
Pick all night with the high and low at the AFL-CIO

In other songs, like "Rice Birds," Carroll offers up beautiful and unexpected imagery to delve into the lonely side of love and landscape: "I was thinking of you when the rice birds flew / When the false dawn came with the morning dew / You're the thunderstorm raging outside my garage / You're the white shirt peeking through my camouflage."

The album ends with "Peace On Earth," a hymn-like plea for peace, in which Carroll reminds us that "Buddha, Mohammed and Vishnu, too / And the forsaken son / Say there'll be peace on earth my friends / When we become as one." A fitting end to a tender yet lively album from a songwriter with a clear-eyed vision and a heart as wide open as all Texas.
• Judith Edelman

http://www.puremusic.com/63adam.html - www.PureMusic.com

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM FOR ADAM CARROLL

It was sometime during the summer of 1998 that Adam Carroll made his local debut at Threadgill's World Headquarters for a songwriter's night. Everyone was doing short solo sets, four or five songs each. Carroll, fresh off the bus into Austin, got up onstage as unrefined as any performer you will ever see – banging away on his guitar and singing with an authentic Texas twang that was just barely attractive. When he broke a string on his third song, the young singer-songwriter gave up, leaving the meager audience unsettled by the entire experience. It was an odd incident, made even more memorable by the path Carroll has taken since.

Today, nearly every time a critic turns on their computer to bang out a few bons mots about the mild mannered Tyler native, they compare him to such revered songwriters as John Prine and/or Townes Van Zandt. Carroll can't be that good, can he? Two or three spins of his new album, Far Away Blues, should be enough to convince listeners that he's at least on the right trail.

In person, Carroll's slight but wiry, with a shock of light brown hair and steel gray eyes. He's sporting a few days' growth on his boyish face, yet always maintains the personable and polite air of a proper Texas gentleman.

"I just turned 30 in March," he says by way of introduction, then adds with a sly smirk, "I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

Carroll grew up in East Texas, and though he had an interest in writing and music, he didn't marry the two until he hit his 20s.

"When I was in junior college," he says, "I was taking guitar lessons and creative writing courses, but I had never had the skills to make either of those successful by themselves. Right around that time, I heard Robert Earl Keen and Guy Clark. I enjoy creative writing, but songwriting seemed a lot easier. With fiction, a lot of times you end up sounding like another person, not yourself."

A 1998 song swap in Archer City with then fledgling Texas music maverick Cory Morrow presented an opportunity called Austin.

"Cory was looking for a roommate," recalls Carroll. "I had no idea what I was getting into, but it sounded like a good idea and I moved here. It turned out to be a little more than I bargained for. I was opening shows for him on Sixth Street, but I couldn't seem to get any gigs on my own and even he said that I was probably missing my audience by playing to his. So I moved south, to Wimberley."

He's now out of San Marcos, but the moving and associated upheaval made it difficult for him to write songs. His first two albums, 1998's South of Town and 2000's Lookin' Out the Screen Door, both produced by musical guru Lloyd Maines, were comprised of songs he had written in his early years.

"It took me awhile where I felt like I had a space where I could write," he nods. "So, yeah. My dry period lasted about five years."

While not a concept album, Far Away Blues, also produced by Maines, is a meditation on family. Carroll's is a musical one, including his grandfather Ray Davidson, who played saxophone for Gene Krupa before taking on choir director duties at his church. Davidson makes an appearance on Far Away Blues. One thing that differentiates Carroll from other writers and leads to comparisons to Prine and Van Zandt is his ability to balance the contemplative with the playful.

"I got to thinking about the way my family connected through music and the way music connects us all," explains Carroll. "It's loosely based on my life, but it's not all true. There are true feelings, but if something's too true, it's not always the best story."

One of his truest experiences was a traveling songwriters show he was involved with, the Four Corners of the Round Table, which included Beaver Nelson, Steve Poltz, and Scrappy Jud Newcomb.

"That's probably my favorite part of what I do these days," says Carroll, eyes alight, "travel around and hear different people's stories. I remember all of them or at least the parts I want to. Lloyd said he didn't think I could get any better, but I could be different. I think that listening to all kinds of songwriters and traveling and stuff gave me a new perspective on things."

Ana Egge and Adam Carroll split a bill at the Cactus Cafe Wednesday, June 15.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A274219 - The Austin Chronicle

ADAM CARROLL- FAR AWAY BLUES

This stoic and soft-spoken man from Austin may just be the most prolific and intently Americana artist of the early 21st century. Those are heavy words however a few seconds into Far Away Blues and you may just agree. He feels as if Woody Guthrie came back to teach a new generation of how simplicity can and always will prevail when trying to gain hope.? Hope is a hearty word and one that immediately comes to mind when listening to Adam Carroll tell his tales.

He is a quiet man. I know this because I had the pleasure of seeing him play with a few of his contemporizes a few weeks ago in Santa Barbara. He shared the stage with Beaver Nelson, Steve Poltz and Jud Newcome.? All these artists are shining stars in a crowded and often imitated but seldom obtained Folk Americana songwriter.? Adam never once glances up until his turn to sing.? His head bowed, staring softly at his shoes and listened intently to each of his brethren.? The kind of listening that made you think that he was in on something you weren’t.? His album Far Away Blues is chock full of wonderful, colorful, tasteful and traditional tunes. Fantastic and wonderful, I am in awe of artists like Adam.? I share the first name and perhaps a few of the same licks but Adam Carroll is gifted with the genius of prose in a way that I can only dream of having in a reincarnated self.

http://adam.streethound.com/2005/10/19/adam-carroll-far-away-blues/ - www.streethound.com

ADAM CARROLL @ MILES OF MUSIC

Texas troubadour Adam Carroll has been compared to a variety of songwriting talent, with folks like John Prine and Bob Dylan placed on either end of the spectrum. Carrolls own natural ease and good nature allows him a singular and distinct place in the rich history of Texas singer/songwriters. Working again with producer Lloyd Maines (Dixie Chicks, Pat Green, Joe Ely), he presents an open, crisply produced collection of country-folk thats both intimate and honest. The live presence of his performances is brought forward as he calls out, with his native drawl, the title of each song before setting to task on his acoustic guitar. Moments of sublime tenderness are balanced with ramblin and rollin songs filled with local color and regional humor. Greater use of supporting instruments such as Dobro, mandolin, piano and even strings, add more color, raising the bar a bit over his previous three studio outings. Also, it doesnt hurt to have the great Ray Wylie Hubbard on board for a co-write and duet the tune with the great sing-a-long chorus, Last Day of Grace. (Blue Corn Music)

http://store.milesofmusic.com/index.htm?&stocknumber=32209 - www.milesofmusic.com

FOUR CORNERS OF GOOD MUSIC PLAYS CONGRESS

By Michael Petitti
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, September 29, 2005

On Saturday Club Congress will provide some unique pre-show entertainment before the tastefully, bawdy burlesque SuicideGirls' show in the form of four Texan singer/songwriters. Though it's just coincidence that Adam Carroll, Beaver Nelson, Steve Polz and Scrappy Jud Newcomb are playing the early show the same night the SuicideGirls invade Club Congress, the lineup is perhaps fitting.

After all, the thing that best separates these four Texans with guitars from the masses is their knack for injecting witty humor into their songs. And there's nothing funnier than opening for a burlesque show. Who knows, it might just prove inspiration for a future song. Recently, Adam Carroll discussed the tour, including the use of humor in his songs.

"I think (humor) just kind of comes to me naturally," Carroll said. "It just seems like kind of the way I like to do it. I kind of get a kick out of it sometimes, and I figure I have to be the first one to get a kick out of it. Then if everybody else does then that's OK too."

Carroll has plenty of reason to laugh, or at least smile, with the recent release of his latest album Far Away Blues. Aside from critical acclaim, the album charted a different, more familial path from his previous releases that were more typical solo singer/songwriter fare.

"For (Far Away Blues) I wrote a bunch of half songs on the piano and the guitar, and then I had kind of theme going because I had it in mind who I wanted to have on the CD," Carroll said. "And that was my grandfather, so I had kind of a family theme going. It's different for everything I do."

The idea for Carroll to include his grandfather, who played saxophone for Gene Krupa in the past, was - like most of Carroll's songwriting - a spontaneous decision.

"Sometimes I have an idea and I'll kind of write the idea down and sort of tinker away at it until I come up with lyrics around it and see where it's going," Carroll said. "Sometimes I have the lyrics in my head and sometimes I imagine another artists singing the lyrics, like a famous person singing the lyrics, and that's kind of how I figure out how they should sound based on who I would want to sing the song."

That kind of songwriting process led to the fuller sound Carroll exhibits on Far Away Blues. The album was fleshed out with Carroll's grandfather filling in on sax and other session players helping with the rhythm tracks.

"The instrumentation was a little different," Carroll said. "A little more experimental this time. We had saxophone and trumpet and strings and piano. The other two (albums) I've done are more straight-up singer/songwriter. The others were real story songs and these were more poetic-slash-story songs."

Now, Carroll and his three buddies are hitting the road under the traveling moniker The Four Corners of the Round Table. The group is spreading their infectious brand of smart-country music to eagerly awaiting audiences. The tour is a copy of past tours the guys have done together.

"Steve and Scrappy and Beaver and me all had the same booking agent for a while, and she was helping us out getting shows, and we did a tour up on the East Coast one time, several years ago, and then we did one in Texas, and now we're doing this one on the West Coast. I think it was sort of a way of getting a novelty thing together and we really enjoyed it the first time, so we've been trying to do it every so often. I don't know how many more times we'll do it, but it's always a kick."

Although all four musicians are outstanding solo acts in their own right, for the Four Corner Shows they all perform together onstage.

"We play together kind of like a round-robin type of thing," Carroll said. "As the tour progresses we tend to learn each other's songs and kind of contribute. It kind of becomes a little group eventually, we try and support each other and feed off each other."

To catch the Four Corners of the Round Table, go to Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., Saturday at 7 p.m. for the all ages show. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/98/188/04_5.html - Arizona Daily Wildcat

ADAM CARROLL CD REVIEW FAR AWAY BLUES

No Depression Magazine
by Linda Ray

"Adam Carroll might be peddling short stories to the New Yorker today had he not fallen into a rock n' roll fantasy, namely the notion that he could get girls with a guitar. He's not saying if it worked, but literature's loss is music's gain. Carroll's keen observations of the commonplace yield characters as familiar as the next cab driver, or the guy slinging suds in the coffee shop kitchen. With marvelous economy, the former student of poetry and creative writing imparts a vital sense of character and motivation, like, say, Faulkner or Steinbeck, or, for that matter, Guy Clark."
- No Depression Magazine

Kudo's for Adam Carroll from Robert Earl Keen press article in Charleston, NC newspaper The Post and Courier..


Getting 'Keen' this weekend at the Charleston Music Hall
Thursday, November 09, 2006
BY DEVIN GRANT

... [edited content]
The Post and Courier - Preview: Have you heard any new artists recently that knocked you out?

Robert Earl Keen: "I'm not a music maven, so I can't really say who's good and who's bad. I know a few people that I think are underrated. There's a guy named Adam Carroll that I've known for two or three years, and he writes some really clever, almost John Prine-like songs, and then he writes some just beautiful (descriptions) of things that happen in Texas."

...
http://www.charleston.net/assets/webpages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=preview&tableId=117780&pubDate=11/9/2006 - The Post and Courier - Charleston, NC