Slaid Cleaves

Broke Down

(Philo - Rounder Records) Slaid is an Austin based singer/songwriter. Broke Down deals with pretty depressing subject matter, mostly down on their luck people. It's not a happy, good time, warm and fuzzy kind of CD. 

It is however, a CD of well written and compelling story songs, with spare arrangements, and sung with just the right amount of mournful despair and at times, guarded optimism.

 

The most optimistic song on the CD is "Key Chain" about a man that's lost his wife and lost his car, but he has one key left and he's gonna start all over again.

Slaid covers Woody Guthrie's "This Morning I Am Born Again" and Del McCoury's "I Feel The Blues Moving In" and both songs would have no problem sliding very nicely into the O Brother soundtrack.

 

"Lydia", written by Karen Poston, is the  heartbreaking story of a now old woman, still mourning the loss of her son and her husband to a mining accident some 40 years earlier. "Breakfast In Hell" in the most traditional form of story song, tells the saga of a logging camp disaster. "Cold And Lonely" is a haunting song about a man that lost his family one by one, in the desolation of a farm that reaped no fruits.

"Bring It On" tells of the hope of a couple that are down and out, but will fight till the bitter end. The title track "Broke Down" revolves around disappointment- a couple who find their life together wasn't quite what they'd hoped for. "One Good Year" finds a man who's still waiting for something right to happen in his life, asking for just one good year, for the chance to turn things around. "Horseshoe Lounge" finds yet another down on his luck guy, watching the woman he wants with another guy because he messed things up on his chance with her, and yearns for one more.

 

Some pretty bleak stuff here, but don't let that put you off. The stories are riveting and well told, the melodies haunting, and these "wrong side of the tracks" characters are a slice of American pie. Thought provoking and cerebral, a very powerful CD from a very gifted artist. At the very least, you'll come away counting your blessings...

 

Visit Slaid's website at www.slaid.com

AnnMarie Harrington Take Country Back April 2002