Slaid Cleaves - Unsung
Produced by David Henry and Rod Picott
Engineered and mixed by David Henry at Truetone Recording, Nashville
Mastered by Jim Demain at Yes Master, Nashville
Cover photograph by Dorothea Lange, courtesy of the Library of
Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection,
[LC-USF34-017306-C]
Additional photography by Dennis Fagan and Karen Cleaves.
Design by Steven Jurgensmeyer
Notes by Richard Skanse
Song notes by Slaid Cleaves
Mary Gauthier appears courtesy of Lost Highway
For management/booking please visit: www.slaid.com
Big thanks go out to my old buddy Rod, and my new friend David.
'Twas a pleasure. Thanks also to all the writers I'm proud to
call friends: Michael, Peter, Steve, Graham, Adam, Chris, David, Ana,
Karen, Melvern and JJ. My hats off to the musicians who so
generously lent their gifts to this project: Paul, Dave, Charles, Nick,
Richard, Pat, Ned and Mary. Thanks to Gurf Morlix, Richard
Skanse, Ken Irwin, Steve Jurgensmeyer, Lee Olsen at KCA, Bob Delevante
and Winker. For pounding along the road with me to bring these
songs to life in towns all over the land, my humble thanks to Ivan
Brown, Rick Richards, Jeff Plankenhorn, Charles "King" Arthur, Michael
O'Connor and Eleanor Whitmore. And, as always, to the one who
makes it all make sense, thanks and love to Karen Cleaves.
Slaid Cleaves
Unsung
Devil's Lullaby by Michael O'Connor
Michael has accompanied
me on guitar through quite a few miles over the past few years. In a
Red Roof outside Pittsburgh, he and Adam Carrol were trading new songs
after a gig. Michael had just written this song, and wasn't sure if it
was good. Oh yeah, I said. It's good.
Paul Griffith: drums
David Henry: electric bass, electric guitar, percussion
Pat Buchanan: electric guitar
Another Kind of Blue by Peter Keane
Pete
and I bonded while doing a lot of poorly attended gigs together in
Texas when we were starting out. I saw him reach a new level when he
came up with this song. To create such an achingly evocative song with
just a few chords and a handful of notes in a simple melody - masterful.
Paul Griffith: drums and percussion
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Charles Arthur: piano
David Henry: synthesizer
Everette by Steve Brooks
Steve
is a writer's writer. He does magazine articles, liner notes, all
kinds of songs, wins pun contests and can kick your ass at Scrabble.
We wrote One Good Year together. I heard him debut this one at the
late, lamented Austin Outhouse in the mid '90s. I'm sure Steve can
tell you more about Everette, the late New Orleans poet and barfly who
inspired this song.
Paul Griffith: drums and triangle
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Charles Arthur: mandolin, Lowry organ
David Henry: cello, shaker
Rod Picott: Wurlitzer
Oh Roberta by Graham Weber
I
met young Graham when he opened for me in Pittsburgh a couple of years
ago, and I remember this song standing out in a very engaging opening
set. Graham's in Austin now, diggin trenches in the fabled music scene
here just as I did 14 years ago.
Paul Griffith: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Rod Picott: acoustic lead guitar
David Henry: pump organ, backing vocals
Racecar Joe by Adam Carroll
If
I had to pick a favorite young writer in Texas . . . Adam played his
first ever gig opening for me at a coffeehouse in his hometown of
Tyler, Texas. He's come a long way since then. Adam sees things most
of us pass by. And he captures that part of the country like no one
else.
Paul Griffith: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Charles Arthur: acoustic guitars
David, Rod and SC: pit crew vocals
Call it Sleep by Chris Montgomery
Chris
had a band in Austin with his girlfriend, Karen Poston, called Aunt
Beanie's First Prize Beets. Right about the time they were breaking up
he played this song for me and a few friends backstage after a poorly
attended gig of mine at Jovitas in South Austin. We all knew he had
just written his best song.
Nick Buda: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
David Henry: Lowry organ
Charles Arthur: lap steel guitar
SC: backing vocals
Millionaire by David Olney
I
heard Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum do this at the Newport Folk Festival a
few years back. Best thing I heard all weekend. David Olney has
recieved a lot more recognition than anyone else on this record. But
still not as much as he deserves.
Paul Griffith: drums
Rod Picott: electric guitar
Fairest of Them All by Ana Egge
I
first heard this song when Ana played an open mic where I was doing
sound. She'd been making the rounds in Austin, impressing a lot of
people (she was still in her teens), and this new one instantly became
my favorite song of hers.
Paul Griffith: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
David Henry: cello
Ned Henry: violin
Mary Gauthier: backing vocals
Flowered Dresses by Karen Poston
The
most requested song at my shows is Lydia, which is on my Broke Down
record. Here's yet another poignant picture of loss and longing from
the pen of Karen Poston. In the studio, I kept choking up on the line
about "hugging my knees, holding my breath."
Paul Griffith: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
David Henry: cello and piano
Charles Arthur: piano
Gospel Moment
My
old friend Charles "King" Arthur leads the band on an impromtu gospel
jam in between takes while engineer and co-producer David Henry
twiddles the knobs.
Paul Griffith: drums
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Charles Arthur: piano
Working Stiff by Melvern Taylor
One
of my favorite gigs in '05 was at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Melvern was on the bill with his Fabulous Meltones.
I'd been a fan of his early records for some time, and he graciously
slipped me a copy of his latest that night. Most of his songs are so
romantic and poppy (he plays the ukelele) that I can't get away with
singing them, but this one works for me.
Paul Griffith: drums and precussion
Dave Jacques: euphonium, trombone, tuba
David Henry: trumpet
SC: electronic piano
Getaway Car by Michael O'Connor
Another
one by Texas guitar sideman Michael O. When my voice gets tired in a
long set (or I sense the audience getting tired of me!) I ask someone
in the band to do one of their songs. My wife Karen would wait around
all night to hear this one so I figured I'd better learn it.
Paul Griffith: drums and percussion
Dave Jacques: upright bass
Charles Arthur: piano
Richard McLaurin: pedal steel guitar
David Henry: Lowry organ, pump organ
Song for June by JJ Baron
JJ
sent this to me via mp3 the day after June Carter died. He's the
youngest writer out of this bunch. But at just 22, he's nearly a
veteran with 5 or 6 years as a working folksinger under his belt.
Charles Arthur: autoharp
Slaid Cleaves - Unsung
Notes by Richard Skanse:
It had to happen. Sooner or later, Slaid Cleaves was bound to get
around to making an album full of cover songs, because eventually, for
better or worse, making covers albums is just what poets of the
singer-songwriter persuasion do. It’s an instinctive itch
practically hard-wired into their DNA, resulting in works of varying
merit (critical and commercial) by the likes of John Lennon, Willie
Nelson, Nanci Griffith, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett and countless
others. Hell, even Bob Dylan has played the covers record card.
A few of these albums turn out to be classics (Willie’s Stardust
springs to mind). Others are quickly forgotten, dismissed as misguided
pet projects or mildly annoying detours (like live albums) between
“real” albums in an artist’s catalog. And then
there’s Slaid Cleaves’ Unsung. Pet project? Most certainly.
Classic? Much too soon to tell. Misguided detour? Not even close. Take
it from this critic, who initially was more than ready to bust the
guy’s chops for trying get away with “just” a bunch
of covers after already taking a leisurely three to four years between
each of his previous three albums: There’s just no mistaking
Unsung for anything but a “real” Slaid Cleaves record. And
a really great one, to boot.
Unsung is pure Slaid through and through, even though he didn’t
write a word of it, and recorded it sans producer/guitarist
extraordinaire Gurf Morlix, his simpatico studio colleague for the
better part of the last decade. “I love making records with
Gurf,” Slaid offers readily, putting to rest any misconception of
musical differences. “But we really hit a groove working together
on the last three records, and I felt like I needed to challenge myself
by changing things up a bit.”
To that end, Slaid ventured out of his beloved adopted hometown of
Austin and flew to Nashville to work with Rod Picott, an old friend
from “back East” with whom Slaid shared a garage band in
high school. In addition to recently making one of Slaid’s
favorite records (2005’s Girl From Arkansas), Picott had
previously teamed with Slaid to co-write a handful of the
latter’s best songs, including “Broke Down,”
“Bring It On,” “Sinner’s Prayer” and
“Tiger Tom Dixon’s Blues.” Actually, that last one
— a highlight of Wishbones — was a Picott original, not a
co-write. But like Karen Poston’s devastating “Lydia”
(from Broke Down), it fits Slaid so well that it’s always a shock
to read another writer’s name on the credits or hear Slaid
introduce it as a cover.
The same can be said for every track on Unsung, which is as much a
compliment to the composers as it is the interpreter. As suggested by
the album’s title, these are not ego-stoking passes at overly
familiar tunes from the “great American songbook,” let
alone merely fresh interpretations of folk traditionals or radio
staples. These are songs written by fellow artists Slaid himself has
met in the trenches, scraping by from gig to gig across the country on
the way to some level of independent success on the small-club,
house-concert and folk-festival circuit that exists far below the
mainstream radar.
Some of the writers here, like David Olney, Ana Egge and Adam Carroll,
have already achieved a degree of regional or even national cult fame
(and no shortage of critical raves), while relative newcomers like
Graham Weber and JJ Baron have very bright futures ahead of them.
Another, Peter Keane, is already — according to his own Web site
— “semi-retired.” But wherever each of these writers
is in their respective careers, their peer, friend and fan Slaid deemed
their songs worthy of a second chance — or in some cases, a first
chance — of being heard by a potentially bigger audience. Or
heard, period; Michael O’Connor’s two cuts —
including the album opening “Devil’s Lullaby” —
had previously only been recorded by their writer (Slaid’s road
guitarist) in demo form. “The concept from the beginning,”
he insists, “was to give a little bit of exposure to some people
that I think are just really great writers.”
Listen to Unsung — to the songs themselves and the level of
performance they inspired — and it’s hard to argue with
Slaid’s picks. One good reason he delivers these songs with such
conviction is because he knows the characters that inhabit them as well
as he knows the songwriters. He knows them because they all come from
the same down, out and generally unsung places from which he’s
plucked so many of his own characters. Adam Carroll’s “Race
Car Joe” and Steve “One Good Year” Brooks’
“Everette” may have never bellied up to the bar of
Austin’s Horseshoe Lounge (immortalized on Broke Down), but they
would have fit right in. Ditto the clock-punchers of Chris
Montgomery’s “Call It Sleep” and Melvern
Taylor’s “Working Stiff,” and even the less savory
protagonists of Olney’s “Millionaire” and
Egge’s “Fairest of Them All” (either on their way up,
or down). And speaking of “Horseshoe Lounge,” Slaid
co-wrtote that tune (and its Wishbones sequel, “Drinkin’
Days”) with Karen Poston, who is represented here with
“Flowered Dresses,” a masterwork of a character portrait
unmatched in heart-aching relief and detail by any song on a Slaid
album since, well, Poston’s own aforementioned
“Lydia.”
The stories these myriad characters have to tell are not Slaid’s
stories, just as the songs themselves are not, technically speaking,
Slaid’s songs. But on Unsung, they all come together and find
common ground — and one uncommonly warm and inviting tug of a
voice — on Slaid’s turf. And that’s a fine place
for a worthy song to be, because there’s just something about
Slaid Cleaves’ voice that instills these songs and the characters
within with a profound sense of … dignity. Maybe it’s a
reflection of all the Woody Guthrie songs Slaid’s listened to and
performed over the years. Or maybe it’s a dignity inherent in the
simple act of finding unsung songs worth singing, and singing them.
Because that’s what poets do.
— RICHARD SKANSE
Slaid Cleaves - Unsung
Devil's Lullaby 2:45
Michael O'Connor / Verda Mae Music, ASCAP
Another Kind of Blue 2:28
Peter Keane / Peter Keane Music, BMI
Everette 4:04
Steve Brooks, BMI
Oh Roberta 3:15
Graham Weber / Buy The Ticket Take The Ride Music, BMI
Racecar Joe 2:40
Adam Carroll / ArtMob Publishing, BMI
Call It Sleep 3:25
Chris Montgomery / Big Pants Music, BMI
Millionaire 2:49
David Olney / Careers BMG Music Publishing, Hayes Court Music, Irving Music, BMI
Fairest of Them All 3:25
Ana Egge / Paper Suit Publishing, BMI
Flowered Dresses 3:49
Karen Poston / Pistolgirl Music, BMI
Gospel Moment :34
Working Stiff 2:29
Melvern Taylor, ASCAP
Getaway Car 3:36
Michael O'Connor / Verda Mae Music, ASCAP
Song For June 2:43
JJ Baron / 100 Proof Publishing, ASCAP
|
|
