[FM] Slaid Cleaves

[David Schultz]

I must heartily disagree with the previous review of Slaid Cleaves'
recent album "Broke Down."  Below is a short review I wrote
for the Norman (Okla.) Transcript newspaper.  You'll see that I
loved the album and did not find the faults that Moshe did.

Slaid Cleaves
Broke Down
Philo Records

Cleaves is at the top of his game.  With his wonderful sophomore album
on Philo, he delivers fine Texas-style acoustic music, very much in
the same style as his previous album "No Angel Knows."  Cleaves is an
excellent storyteller: songs full of strong imagery wrap themselves
around his sparse, but achingly perfect, instrumentation.  "Breakfast
in Hell" is sung in the spirit of the tall tales of the American West.
Sandy Gray, a man-and-a-half of a logger on the Musquash River in
Ontario, gives his life to prevent a log jam on the river, rightfully
taking his place among Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry.  "Key
Chain" is a great country song a la Buck Owens.  "This Morning I Am
Born Again" is a collaboration with Cleaves providing the music to a
lost poem by Woody Guthrie.  "Bring It On" is defiant, yet hopeful,
more rocking than the rest of the album.  Cleaves, even tosses in
lovely three-part harmony on Del McCroury's "I Feel the Blues Moving
In."  As a whole, the album is minimalist, but near everything is
essential.  Cleaves has a unique powerful voice, one of experience,
yet youthful optimism.  If there is a downside to this CD, it's the
40-minute length is too short, leaving the listener craving more!  A+

-David Schultz
For The Norman Transcript
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Dr. David Schultz                                   phone:  (405) 366-0453
NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory                fax:  (405) 366-0472
1313 Halley Circle                                   schultz@nssl.noaa.gov 
Norman, OK 73069  USA                    http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~schultz

"I'm a scientist.  'Certainty' is a big word."  -- Anne Heche in "Volcano"
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