FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS PRESENTS: SLAID CLEAVES
This is a special listening concert at the ROOTS HQ at the Historic
Guisinger Music House on the Downtown Fayetteville Square. There are
limited tickets available for this intimate show.
**ROOTS HQ CONCERT PROCEEDS SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING OF
FAYETTEVILLE ROOTS (Folk School of FAYETTEVILLE, a 501c3)
SLAID CLEAVES BIO Now twenty-five years into his storied career,
Cleaves' songwriting has never been more potent than on his new album
Ghost on the Car Radio, out June 23.
The characters in Slaid Cleaves' songs live in unglamorous reality.
They work dead-end jobs, they run out of money, they grow old, they
hold on to each other (or not), and they die. With an eye for the
beauty in everyday life, he tells their stories, bringing a bit of
empathy to their uncaring world.
On "Take Home Pay," co-written with longtime friend Rod Picott,
CLEAVES SINGS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN AGING MANUAL LABORER,
fighting looming regret and sadness with stubborn resiliency (and
opioid use).
“On my way down to the pawn shop
A couple hundred is all I need
If I have to, I’ll hit the blood bank
I’m bone dry but I can always bleed
I got some Oxy to keep me moving
It slowly takes some things away
The only thing I was scared of losing
She packed up and left today”
— "TAKE HOME PAY"
"As befits the times we live in, there's a heavy dose of
disappointment and disillusion here," he says. But somehow, through
the worst of it, optimism remains, as if to say, "Yeah, things are
pretty bad out there. But there's still some good stuff if you know
where to look."
One place his characters find solace is with each other. Traditional
love songs are not often found on a SLAID CLEAVES RECORD. Here he
approaches the subject less as a romantic gesture, and more as a
world-weary appreciation of the one who's seen you through thick and
thin, as in the song "So Good to Me."
“Times were tough but we were tougher
Slings and arrows we did suffer
Scars, we’ve got a few, but who has not
Words of love and words of anger
Times of peace and times of danger
Never take for granted what we’ve got”
— "SO GOOD TO ME"
Described as "terse, clear and heartfelt" (NPR Fresh Air), his songs
speak to timeless truths. "I'm not an innovator. I'm more of a keeper
of the flame," he says.
"Songs are so accessible. You don't need an education to fully
appreciate them, you don't need a lot of leisure time to spend on
them, you don't need to learn the language of song. We seem to be born
with it," Cleaves explains. "With no preparation at all, they can
bring you to tears in a matter of seconds. I remember being three or
four and getting a lump in my throat when I heard Hank Williams sing."
Now in his fifties, Cleaves admits that it's sometimes hard to stay
inspired. "I do become jaded," he says. "I wonder that, at this point
in my career, I've had no real national success. No impact on the
culture, as my heroes had. The music that I love just doesn't seem
relevant to mainstream culture. But then, I have no interest in what
mainstream culture offers either."
"But those feelings are always quickly overcome by gratitude," he
explains. "I'm making a living as a musician, and making a meaningful
connection with people - what could be better than that?"
Ghost on the Car Radio is Cleaves' first release since 2013's Still
Fighting the War, which was praised as "one of the year's best albums"
by American Songwriter and "carefully crafted...songs about the
struggles of the heart in hard times" by the Wall Street Journal. The
New York Daily News called his music "a treasure hidden in plain
sight," while the Austin Chronicle declared, "there are few
contemporaries that compare. He's become a master craftsman on the
order of Guy Clark and John Prine."
For updated tour dates, visit slaidcleaves.com/tour
music
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19/07/2020 Last update