Hayes Carll will make his major label debut when Lost Highway Records (a Universal imprint) releases Trouble In Mind next week. With that impending milestone, I thought it might be interesting to look back on an interview I did with Hayes in November 2005.

At that time, he'd recently released Little Rock on his own Highway 87 Records and was struggling to gain FM radio airplay. We talked about the difficulties of cracking major media markets, the tremendous boost satellite radio can provide to emerging artists, plus the potential risks and rewards associated with self-releasing his music.

So take a listen and see how much has changed for Hayes in the last few years. It's a long sound file, clocking in at just under 15 minutes. And you'll have to forgive my NPR-influenced earnestness in the narrative bits. But all in all, I think it's an interesting snapshot of a nearly hour-long conversation with a fascinating artist. I hope you think so too.

You can listen using the media player embedded above or download the MP3 (13.2 MB) to listen at your leisure.