from Isthmus Daily Page on thedailypage.com

KMAG YOYO, the new album from acclaimed Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll, is #63 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 10,500 units in its first week (Lost Highway). This is Carll’s highest debut to date and follows his celebrated 2008 release, Trouble In Mind. In addition to this commercial success KMAG YOYO (a military acronym which stands for Kiss My Ass Guys You’re On Your Own), continues to receive widespread critical acclaim—The New York Times asserts, “…[Carll] extends a worthy Texas tradition: the weathered, hard-drinking, weary but clear-eyed troubadour…,” while Spin Magazine included him in their March feature “The Next Big Things: 11 Artists You Must Hear in 2011,” calling him a “silver-tongue-in-cheek country iconoclast.”

In celebration of the release, Carll recently appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and, in June, is confirmed to perform at the 2011 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Currently, Hayes in the midst of a national series of shows in support of the record, including a month-long Texas Club Tour. The 16-date tour of Carll’s hometown state will wrap-up at SXSW on March 18 with a special performance as part of Lost Highway’s 10th Anniversary Concert at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater. See reverse for full tour details.

Three of Carll’s songs and two from the new record, “Hard Out Here” and “Hide Me,” are featured in the new major motion picture, Country Strong, starring Gweneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. Of his featured songs, the San Francisco Chronicle asserts, “ [Carll] provides some of the film’s most compelling musical moments.”

Carll’s previous Lost Highway release, Trouble In Mind, received widespread critical acclaim, topping “Year End” lists at Esquire, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, American Songwriter, Newsday and the Nashville Scene. Additionally, Carll’s song “She Left Me For Jesus” won the 2008 Americana Music Award for “Song of the Year” and Don Imus called it the “greatest country song ever.” Moreover, this past September, Carll won the Americana Music Award for “New/Emerging Artist of the Year” and was recently featured on the lauded PBS concert series Austin City Limits.

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