Carroll was born in 1975 in Tyler, Texas. His father is an attorney and his mother, a musician and choir director. He studied classical guitar and creative writing at Tyler Junior College. He left college in his early 20s, around 1995, and began performing in the Austin-Dallas-San Antonio area, initially in coffeehouses and later at pubs and clubs throughout the region. In 1998, he released his debut
South of Town which was followed by ''Lookin' Out the Screen Door
in 2000 and Adam Carroll Live'' in 2002. All three were produced by
Grammy Award-winning producer
Lloyd Maines. While on the road, Carroll opened for some of East Texas's top musicians, who took notice of his song writing and began performing his work.
Hayes Carll was the first to record a cover of one of Carroll's songs, "Take Me Away", on his 2005 album
Little Rock. Other covers followed, including
Slaid Cleaves with "Race Car Joe" on
Unsung in 2006 and
Band of Heathens with "Maple of Tears" (co-written with band members Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist) on their studio debut
Band of Heathens in 2008. In 2005, Carroll recorded his third studio album,
Far Away Blues, which was followed three years later by ''Old Town Rock 'n Roll
. He released another live album in 2010, Live at Flipnotics
, recorded at an iconic Austin coffeehouse that has since closed. In 2014, Carroll put out his fifth studio release, Let It Choose You''. In April 2019, Carroll released his first solo album in five years,
I Walked In Them Shoes. Then in August 2019, he and his wife singer songwriter Chris Carroll made their recording debut as a duo on
Good Farmer. Chris plays mandolin and guitar on the album, while Adam plays rhythm guitar, lead guitar and harmonica. Both of the 2019 releases were produced by Lloyd Maines.{{cite web|url=https://glidemagazine.com/229451/chris-and-adam-carroll-make-their-duet-debut-with-acoustic-good-farmer-album-review/ ==
Highway Prayer: A Tribute to Adam Carroll==