CD reviews for 07/01/09 – Slaid Cleaves

Compact Capsules for July 1, 2009
by Dan Ferguson

Slaid Cleaves
Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
Music Road Records

Be it teardrop sad or happy go lucky, the songs of Austin-based Slaid Cleaves have always been marked by literate wordplay and a keen eye for detail all saddled with sweet melodies. Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away is the Maine native’s first album of new material since 2004 and a most welcome return. In fine voice throughout, Cleaves spans the emotional spectrum from the heartbreak of “Cry” to the working class grit of “Hard to Believe” to the longing of “Green Mountains and Me”. Visit www.slaid.com.

(Dan Ferguson is a free-lance music writer and host of The Boudin Barndance, broadcast Thursday nights from 6 – 9 pm on WRIU-FM 90.3. He lives in Peace Dale and can be reached at [email protected].)<...