‘Bible on the Dash’ performers launch musical tour with Lexington show

The last thing Hayes Carll likely expected to collect with his winnings at a card game was an artistic collaborator. But that is, sort of, what happened when one of the most respected new generation American singer-songwriters from Texas squared off with Corb Lund, a performer garnering a similar country-infused reputation as a songsmith from Canada.

“I met Corb at a poker game in Dauphin, Manitoba,” Carll said. “It was probably 20 years ago. We quickly became best friends and would go trade tours with each other. He would bring me up to Canada and then I would have him come down to Texas or in the States. We collaborated on a number of songs over the years.”

One of those tunes, 2013’s “Bible on the Dash,” has endured enough for these North/South pals to serve as the namesake song for a fully collaborative, month-long tour that opens this week at Manchester Music Hall. While Carll, Lund and their bands have shared concert bills before, the April tour is an altogether different undertaking. It will present both artists onstage at the same time without bands. The order of the evening: two performers swapping songs and stories.

“I’ve always been drawn to Corb’s writing,” Carll said. “He writes passionately about the things that are important to him — where he comes from and the culture he grew up in and still lives in — the Western culture, the rodeo culture, the cowboy culture, all of that. He writes about the road and being a songwriter and being a gambler, falling in love — just all of the stuff I’ve always related to. I think he’s one of the best when it comes to writing about life, and he happens to have an interesting life. He’s also a really clever wordsmith and is funny, which I appreciate, as well. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. I think he takes his work seriously, but not himself. That’s always resonated with me as a listener.”

These descriptions also can be applied to Carll’s celebrated music. For over two decades, he has developed a reputation in Nashville circles as a choice songwriter with works rich in human detail and wry reflection. His compositions have been recorded by Kenny Chesney, Lee Ann Womack (whose 2014 version of “Chances Are” earned Carll a Grammy nomination) and Brothers Osborne. But Carll’s sense of country songwriting has been championed most consistency outside of country music circles. His recordings have scored high on Americana and other non-country specific charts while his writing has had many critics and audiences viewing Carll as a generational successor to such time-honored Texas-rooted song stylists as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and, in some cases, Kris Kristofferson.

“Some of my earliest childhood memories are of listening to Willie Nelson on the radio,” Carll said. “And there was Mickey Newbury. Lyle Lovett grew up 10 miles from where I did. Kris Kristofferson changed my life the first time I heard him. And Townes Van Zandt. And on and on and on. So whether it was Willie Nelson being everywhere or Jerry Jeff (Walker) or Ray Wylie Hubbard ... all these people were in the air.

“There was an ethos, a culture built around that. It was part of an identity I very much felt a kinship with — to be a writer, to be in Texas, to be a writer from Texas. I hope what I do is universal, but that stuff was very much, in my formative years, making me appreciate music and then appreciate these unique artists putting their stuff out into the world. It gave me something to really strive towards.”

So what contrasts emerge when an Americana-minded songwriter from Lone Star country exchanges songs in an acoustic duo setting with a country-leaning stylist from the Great White North?

“Well, the big difference is Corb writes a lot about Alberta and his homeland and his family ranch. He has land that has been in his family for centuries and it’s very important to him — the protection and conservation of it, the lifestyle and the horses. He’s got a lot of family that rodeoed and cowboyed. Those are things that I don’t have. There is a difference in the subject matter that he writes about, and I love that. I feel like I’m always discovering something about the world and about him through his songs. But similarly, I grew up in Texas which has a lot of that culture, the Western Culture, the cowboy culture, so I recognize that. I just didn’t grow up on a ranch.”

The month-long Bible on the Dash Tour isn’t the only collaborative project Carll has jumped into of late. Striking a little closer to home has been an ongoing partnership with the Austin-based troupe Band of Heathens. The alliance culminated with a tour and recording last fall credited to Hayes and the Heathens. Aside from shared senses of styles, sounds and sentiments, the teaming also gave Carll a performance luxury his own career hasn’t offered.

“I’ve known the Heathens, some of them, for 20 years. We’ve always been friendly. Over the years, we did separate tours where they would open my shows and then serve as my backing band. I just always loved working with them. They’re incredibly musical and super-talented. They open up a whole range of possibilities for me as a performer, as well as just being really good guys and friends.

“But they allow me to not be a frontman. I mean, I am a frontman when we play together, but I’m one of three. The cool thing is I’m also a band member for the first time in my life. I’ve never been that before. I’ve led bands, but I’ve never had a moment onstage where I can hang back and play guitar and look at the audience — you know, just have fun while somebody else does the singing.”

Hayes Carll & Corb Lund, Bible on the Dash Tour

When: April 1 at 8 p.m.

Where: Manchester Music Hall, 899 Manchester Hall

Tickets: $25-$55 through www.ticketweb.com

Online: manchestermusichall.com/events.