Customer Reviews

Broke Down

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was lured to a Slaid Cleaves show by a friend here in Philly and walked away with three CD's. He was that impressive. In the best folk tradition, he weaves tales of the down trodden with tales of hope in a rich voice that never comes across as preachy or weak-kneed. Like John Prine or maybe Steve Earle, Slaid knows how to sing about real people and places ("Horse Shoe Lounge" and "Lydia") and of the larger than life tales that make such myths worth hearing again and again ("Breakfast In Hell").

I saw him again this summer at the Newport Folk Festival and he was darn near the best player on the side stage. His reworking of Woody Guthrie's "This Morning I was Born Again" puts most of the "alt-country" crowd to shame. He also understands musical economics. Ten selections, and not one of them a filler. (Are you listening Ryan Adams?) I have played "One Good Year" several times when I feel down, and it never fails to give me a surge of willpower. I can't recommend Slaid Cleaves and "Broke Down" enough, and especially if he's playing near enough to your town to get into a show.

Slaid Cleaves' new album is a terrific contribution from this talented singer/songwriter! My personal favorite on it is "Key Chain," an interesting evolution from his earlier car songs. Here, the car key represents the last piece of the narrator's old life and the first piece of his new one. He may be "broke down," like other characters on the album, but he's picking up the pieces and starting all over again. I also loved the setting to new music of Woodie Guthrie's lyrics in "This Morning I am Born Again."

The great Gurf Morlix and the other musicians add texture to this album, as well. This album is well worth adding to your collection.

As a long time follower of Slaid's I have to say this is just an INCREDIBLE record. It certainly may prove to be his best. Although 2000 may have just begun, this one's gonna be tough to beat. Slaid's voice resonates so deeply on this record it is simply stunning. The writing is among his best and the songs are immediately timeless. Slaid is much more than an excellent singer/songwriter, he is an IMPORTANT artist that needs to be supported. Just amazing.

Buy this CD. I buy most CDs in this category, as they are released. This is by far one of the best CDs I have heard. If you liked Uncle Tupelo, the earlier Wilco and Sun Volt, the Mermaid Avenue CD, or Steve Earle - you will like this one. Excellent songs. Excellent production quality. A little Woodie Guthrie and Del McCoury thrown in for good measure. One regret - wish there were a few more songs on the CD.

This album sneaks up on you. You're taken in by the melodies of "Broke Down," "One Good Year," and "Horseshoe Lounge," but you soon find yourself (after repeated playings) longing to hear "Lydia," "Bring It On," and the witty, humorous "Key Chain" (a necessary addition to the CD given the dark atmosphere of the other songs). Then, when you've enjoyed those tunes repeatedly, you get hooked on "Breakfast in Hell," a great epic verse, and "This Morning I Was Born Again," a superb Woody Guthrie lyric that Cleaves writes great music for. Add to the mix a Del McCoury remake (excellent harmonies), and all of a sudden it hits you that you're listening to ONE GREAT CD! I haven't tired of playing it yet. The only cut I could do without is "Cold and Lonely," which is so utterly without hope that I wonder why Cleaves was intent on placing the song on a CD full of characters who still retain some hope. I do find the melody appealing (in a dark sort of way), but "Cold and Lonely" is the one cut (the ONLY cut!) I don't mind skipping over. All in all, this is a first-rate CD. I'd highly recommend it to any country, folk or bluegrass fans!

...Slaid Cleaves "Broke Down" is such a good record! Slaid is in the vein of many a folk singer-songwriter, but this album stands out from the rest.

Slaid writes and sings songs that are very descriptive; it's like a story being told in front of you.

The music is very laid back and mellow with lots of acoustic guitar.

Also, it's solid throughout start to finish, no duds in there. Superb stuff.

Slaid Cleaves' Broke Down is the finest album I've heard in some time. It's a combination of strong melodies, haunting lyrics and simplicity that recalls Freedy Johnston, a more tuneful approach to themes on Springsteen's 'Nebraska' and Steve Earle's work on Guitar Town. The title cut and 'One Good Year' are so strong that they could carry the record alone, but there's more. The lament of 'Horseshoe Lounge,' the despair of 'Cold and Lonely', and the confidence of 'Bring it On,' bear multiple listnings. 'Lydia' sounds like it could've been lifted off a Freedy Johnston record and Slaid's version of Woody Guthrie's 'This morning I was Born Again' offers hope among some of the tougher tunes. "Key Chain" brings to mind Carl Perkins -all in all great listening. My only reason for not giving the CD five stars is that I find after one or two listenings I skip over the story-in-a-song Breakfast in Hell. Still, my advice is run don't walk to get this CD.

For several years now, we here in Austin Tx have had a secret treasure -- but we knew that sooner or later Slaid Cleaves would be discovered by the rest of the world. With this, his second cd for Philo, Slaid's incredible talent is being enjoyed by new fans all over the country, thanks to some well-deserved national radio play and to the inevitable word-of--mouth that has followed him around after his fine live performances.

Slaid has been compared to everyone from Hank Williams to Woody Guthrie -- two of his heroes, to be sure -- but he's no one's copycat. The mark of a great songwriter is to take in all of those influences that have touched your soul during your life, refine them, learn from them, and produce your own music, in your own style, speaking from that soul.

Slaid Cleaves has learned well. He has paid his dues for years, singing to audiences in small bars who were, shall we say, not in prime listening condition. His songwriting has grown and matured, as have his voice and his rapport with his audience. The crowds at his shows have gotten bigger and bigger, and he has begun touring more extensively -- his appeal and popularity have steadily increased.

The songs on this cd, mostly his own, show a depth of vision and an understanding of life that are hard to come by for someone twice his age. The melodies are memorable and individual, the lyrics cut right to the heart of his subjects, and his voice gently compels you to listen.

Many of these songs are dark -- he'll be the first one to joke about that -- but there are lots of dark times in people's lives. Slaid's songs are not without hope -- they speak of perseverance in the face of an endless string of tragedies, of the hope to be found in making a new start in a troubled life, of never saying 'die'.

Besides his own well-crafted songs, Slaid has chosen some fine work by other writers to include in this set. There are fine contributions here from Austin songsmiths Steve Brooks and Karen Poston -- Slaid does a beautiful job on Poston's gem 'Lydia'. There's the classic Del McCoury tune 'I feel the blues movin' in', and a song for which Woody Guthrie wrote words but never set to music, completed here by Slaid, 'This morning I am born again'.

This is an amazingly good disc -- and his debut Philo release, 'No angel knows', is equally good. It's great to see someone who has so much talent, has worked so long and so hard at his craft, be poised on the brink of what should be wide national recognition. And, hey...anyone who merits a quote on their cd cover from Tom and Ray Magliozzi (of the NPR show 'Car talk') simply MUST have a lot going for them -- and Slaid Cleaves does.

I saw Slaid Cleaves in the Woody Guthrie tribute Ribbon of Highway concert at the Newport Folk Festival this summer, and he was the standout among about a dozen highly talented folk/country/bluegrass performers onstage. Despite the fact that several others are better known/selling/awarded.

While many singers in this genre over-dramatise, forcing slightly affected, overdone deliveries with too many vocal trills, Cleaves was a class act of understatement in the tradition of the original greats. (One side effect of this concert was I bought the original Guthrie recordings, and was suprised to find he sang nothing like his nasal twanging followers, Ramblin'Jack Elliott and Boby Dylan.)

As for this album, most of the songs self-penned, the styles range from mainstream multi-category -- "Lydie" -- to several songs with a slightly more country or bluegrassy feel, that have nothing in common with the verbally cliched, over-produced country you hear on the radio. The CD ends with two bluegrass type melodies -- one Cleaves tune put to Guthrie's lyrics "This Morning I Am Born Again" sent chills up my spine.

I wish you could hear this kind of music on the radio. Everyone at the concert crowding around the CD table was asking, "Who's the guy with the voice?" He delivers with such dignity and stoicism in the original spirit of the folk tradition. "One Good Year" is one of the best songs, anyhow, anywhere.

Oh, and one more thing -- Slaid Cleaves is ****ing gorgeous. Cleaves has been around a few years and I wish record company executives, radio and promoters would recognize his potential. He is on par with Lyle Lovett, but you could look at him forever. I wish the powers that be would understand that people want to hear genuine, accessable music like this, on mainstream, folk or country radio.

Check out the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives web site, and click on news and events to see where you can catch him and the excellent Ribbon of Highway tour this fall and winter. It is a revelation.

When I was a child, my father used to play and sing lots of John Prine songs; until I was in my teens I had no idea that my Dad hadn't written them (you didn't exactly hear them on the radio), but I could see poor Sam Stone wasted and dying, Donald and Lydia, could even picture the poor sap sticking an American flag decal on his wife's forehead. The songs told stories that stayed with you, and their tunes were so hummable you couldn't shake them. That being said, Slaid Cleaves' "Broke Down" is the most evocative, soul-stirring album since Prine's first. More like a book of short stories than a record, "Broke Down" sets the table right off the bat with its title track, which for telling a sad tale of young love and betrayal is better than anything to (dis)grace country radio in the last decade. The album rarely misses a step, although I agree that "Cold and Lonely" is maybe a bit too much of a downer, and although I think "Bring It On" is noticeably weaker than the rest of the material. But the rest - oh! "Lydia" is a classic tearjerker about hard life and early death in the mines, and "This Morning I Was Born Again" is a raw, mighty vision in the words of Woody Guthrie with music by Slaid. "Breakfast in Hell" is a great story song with a masculine sound that evokes the logging-camp cold the words so cleverly describe. "Broke Down" is usually lumped in with "folk" music, but don't let that fool you. Slaid Cleaves' songs have the raw hurt of Hank, hooks like a tackle box, and the unmistakable shine of greatness. "Broke Down", if it must be categorized, should be kept on that short list of the best albums of the past two or three years. Buy it and beat the bandwagon - Slaid Cleaves will be a big name soon if there's any justice in the world!