SLAID CLEAVES
Website [https://www.slaidcleaves.com/] | Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/slaidcleaves/] | Twitter
[https://twitter.com/slaidc] | YouTube
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvNzS-LQtKfmDsyhk2DbRRA]
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_. 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). "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." 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."
ROBBIE FULKS
Website [http://www.robbiefulks.com/] | Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/RobbieFulksOfficial/?fref=ts] | Twitter
[https://twitter.com/RobbieFulks] | Video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohznu4eNyGA&feature=emb_title]
ROBBIE FULKS IS A SINGER, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer,
and songwriter. 2017’s _Upland Stories_, earned year’s-best
recognition from _NPR_ and _Rolling Stone_ among many others, as well
as two Grammy® nominations, for folk album and American roots song
(“Alabama At Night”).
_Wild! Wild! Wild!_, the new collaboration between Grammy-nominated
singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks and rock-and-roll royalty Linda Gail
Lewis, gleefully lives up to its title. It’s Americana music
that’s as butt-shakin’ as Beale Street, deep-rooted as the Grand
Ole Opry, and hip as a trip to The Strip. Subversive as it is
reverential, the album jumps the genre tracks of nitty-gritty
rock-and-roll, country-and-western, rockabilly, jump swing, and
gospel, landing in a strange slice of spacetime—call it 1954—when
all these were One (and Linda was 7).
ROBBIE FULKS, the record’s producer, is “one of the most observant
and wry songwriters of the past two decades” (_Rolling Stone_).
Ground-zero Louisiana-born rocker Linda Gail Lewis is the younger
sister and frequent performing partner of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose piano
innovations she carries forward. Her present-at-the-creation cred
buoys the record while Robbie—who sings, plays, leads the band,
writes most of the songs, and arranges the others—provides an
anchoring sensibility, one that savors old sounds but sidesteps
nostalgia. Their two talents have fashioned a record that’s urgent,
honest, and fun. Remember fun?
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11/04/2020 Last update