Slaid Cleaves

Happy New Year everybody!

I hope that everyone had a great, happy & healthy holiday – and that 2009 shapes up to be a great year for all.

For my first post of the year – a year that I will take my cue from the best music blog out there – “Teenage Kicks” (see our links section) – I want to occasionally bring to you some of the great music that is out there that might have slipped by your CD collection.

Over the holidays, I was listening to this guy – Slaid Cleaves – a lot. Slaid is one of those singer songwriters who people rave about – and I’ll be no different. The ease with which he delivers his songs is so seemingly effortless and smooth that you almost overlook the craft by which he has molded some of the best storytelling songs out there.

For those of you who don’t know his music – may I suggest his CD: “Broke Down” as a pretty good starting point? I was playing down at SXSW a few years back – and ended up sitting next to Slaid on stage during a “Songwriters In The Round” show – and Slaid nailed the title track of this CD during one round. As he finished, I leaned over to him and said, “Whatever CD that is on – I’m buying it as soon as we walk off this stage.”

Slaid & I ended up trading CD’s – and I fell in love with his music. Imagine if Springsteen had flushed out “Nebraksa” with a few great ‘Americana’ styled players and Emmylou singing harmonies – and that’s the general idea.

So … there you go … take a look & listen at his website – and then buy a CD (or two or three).

Till next time … meet me down at the Horseshoe Lounge.

http://www.slaid.com/index.html