Hayes Carll felt "disconnected in a lot of different ways" as he began writing songs for his new album, What It Is, whose tracks "Times Like These" and "Be There" premiere exclusively below. Suffice to say that the Nashville singer-songwriter not only reconnected but came to grips in a big way with a gamut of feelings on the 12-song set.
"I think the starting point for me is I'm a songwriter and I’m writing about my life. It's what I do," Carll, a multiple Americana Music Awards winner, tells Billboard. "What I tried to do specifically on this record was to be as honest as I could. I was writing about themes that were important to me -- about my relationships, about the state of the world around me and my observation of that and how it made me feel -- and then about my connection to all of it, and the search for that.