It has been 5 years since the last offering from Slaid Cleaves, 2004’s Wishbones (**). That’s a long time for fans of one of Austin’s best singer-songwriters to wait. Needless to say, Everything You Love Will be Taken Away is not some hastily written, recorded and produced disc made on some big label deadline. Slaid is now working with a co-op label, Music Road Records, which he says allows him more control over his career. The label is the offspring of Jimmy LaFave.
The new disc was co-produced by Gurf Morlix, who also produced Wishbones. Most of the new songs were at least co-written by Slaid, with help from Adam Carroll on Hard To Believe and by Rod Picott on several as well. The thing that stands out to me in Slaid’s tunes is his voice, which is softer and lacks the whiskey soaked ‘growl’ of some of his contemporaries. It’s pleasantly different and a great fit to his music. A perfect example is the opening cut, my favorite on the disc, Cry, a great tune that easily gets stuck in your head. Fellow Austinite singer-songwriter Trish Murphy adds some beautiful harmony vocals on some cuts as well, helping make this disc a real vocal gem. The only cover tune on the cd is a subdued version of Ray Bonneville’s Run Jolee Run.
One of the signs of a well produced album to me is when the producers are able to find the right mix of music and vocals and highlight the strongest part of the music. Appropriately the music on these great tunes supports the great vocals without overpowering or stealing the spotlight from them. Some of the highlights are Black T-Shirt and Tumbleweed Stew, on which Slaid wonders, “Where can a good man go crazy? Where can a cowboy get stoned?”
Slaid grew up in Maine, and finds one of his biggest fans in noted music lover Stephen King, also from Maine. In an introduction printed in the cd, King relates how he first discovered Slaid:
“listening to a program called Rogue Calls on XM CrossCountry, a radio station that played country music by men and women who did not, by and large, wear cowboy hats…by fabulous performers that mainstream country music radio had never heard of: James McMurtry, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Gurf Morlix. I listened to Rogue Calls without fail, and one day some trucker with a southern accent as thick as chickendirt called and asked if he could hear that ‘quittin’ drinkin’ song’. That song was of course was “Drinkin’ Days” by Slaid Cleaves and it went into me like a bolt of dry lightning….I thought it was the voice of a real American troubadour, and when I got home I made checking Slaid Cleaves out on the Internet my first priority.”
While five years is a long time to wait, I think all of Slaid’s old fans as well as many new ones will certainly be happy with Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away.
**As Jim points out in the comments, Slaid had a 2006 releasse of cover tunes called Unsung. This is the first cd of his own compositions in 5 years.
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Slaid released “Unsung,” a full-length CD, on May 23, 2006, on the Rounder label. While any wait for new Slaid material is too long, it’s only been 3 years, not 5 years. Kinda sloppy, folks.
You’re right Jim, that should say first disc of ’self-penned’ tunes in 5 years. I appreciate the feedback and I’ll make a correction.
Thanks,
Don Z
Hey, Don. I confess. I wasn’t aware that Unsung was just covers, so it’s my goof, too. Thanks for the review. Slaid’s great, and more people need to find his music.