Album Review : Slaid Cleaves : Sorrow and Smoke
Sep 3, 2011 Album Reviews, Uncategorized
It’s been quite a long time since I posted anything on this site, let alone a review that I wrote. I can think of no greater album to give me a reason to return and the motivation to press forward.
I have to start this review by stating a couple things. First, I love live albums and second I have been eagerly awaiting a live album from Slaid Cleaves.
Sorrow and Smoke : Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, will be officially released this coming Tuesday and no doubt will have a lot of people excited to hear what Slaid has to offer. The record was recorded at the famous club that Slaid immortalized in song on his album, Brokedown, over two shows in the first half of 2010.
Alongside Slaid on this one is longtime lead guitarist/ backing vocalist, Michael O’Connor and multi-instrumentalist,Oliver Steck. As always Slaid’s voice is in top form, Michael’s guitar work is spot on and Steck’s contributions really fill out the songs in a live setting. I have never had the pleasure of seeing Cleaves live, but if I do I would be quite happy if this were the lineup as the three of them play well off each other and give the songs a great over all sound.
Now for the songs that appear on this double disc set. The selection of tracks on this record is perfect. They span Slaid’s entire career and include every one of my favorite Cleaves’ originals as well as a couple yodeling Don Walser tracks. If I were to create a setlist for a Slaid show this album would not be far off of what I would write down.
Highlights for me pretty much consist of my favorite Slaid songs, there are great live versions of “Brokedown”, “Drinking Days” and obvious crowd favorite, “Horseshoe Lounge”. The aforementioned Walser Yodeling set is preceded by what Slaid calls a warmup yodeling song, “Horses”.
It was also nice to see that a few of the best tracks from 2009′s studio effort, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, are also included on this set. So often when someone releases a live album they avoid songs from their latest release and if that were the case here it would have been highly disappointing. Included here are the Rod Picott co-write “Black T-Shirt”, “Tumbleweed Stew” and another co-write this time with Adam Carroll, ” Hard to Believe” .
A few more standouts include the crowd participation heavy, ” Breakfast in Hell”, in which the audience is turned into a logging crew as they assist the hero Sandy Gray break a log jam, before, he, like so many other folk heroes, gives his life for the cause. Also my all-time favorite Cleaves track, “One Good Year” shows up towards the end of the second disc. This song includes the line “I’ve been chasing grace, but grace ain’t so easily found” which has been a favorite line of mine from the first time I heard it and live the song has an even deeper feeling of desperation. Closing out the set is the previously unreleased “Go For The Gold”, a spiritually based song about the one rule we all should follow regardless of religious beliefs.
After just the first listen of this live record, it landed on the short list of my favorite live offerings and definitely one of the best things to be released this year. It only makes me want to check out a Slaid show even more than I already did. My only complaint about the record is that he avoided the cover songs from his album, Unsung. While I understand the reasoning behind not putting a ton of covers on the album, and really wanting to highlight the Cleaves’ songs and co-writes, I do really like some of the songs on that album of covers and would love to have heard some live versions.
With only that small complaint this album is wildly successful in my book and is absolutely a must own. I do believe the release day is this Tuesday so go over to Slaid’s website and order your copy today !
Tags: adam carroll, michael o'connor, Rod Picott, slaid cleaves
Album Review : The Mystiqueros : Agave
Jul 31, 2010 Uncategorized
The Mystiqueros are a band put together and fronted by Walt Wilkins, who has been a staple on the Americana music scene for quite some time. Personally, I was only turned on to Wilkins recently and I have one of his solo records, Vigil, which is a great singer/ songwriter driven album. With the Mystiqueros, Wilkins has found a way to keep the songwriting credibility and make a rock, soul and pop infused record.
Agave is the second release from the band, which features members that have all had successful careers of their own in the Texas music scene. When I listened to the album for the first time, I couldn’t help but, smile it just feels good all the way through. Wilkins’ voice is perfectly complimented by the others and the harmonies on the record are amazing.
As with so many great albums, love or finding love is a general theme that permeates throughout this one and Wilkins and company have the ability to write these songs without a hint of hokeyness that makes them universally relatable.
The album opens with “I Would Not Make it Through” which is an homage to the one who waits at home for the weary traveler who longs to be home. The line “I say my name twice into the bricks just to hear it bounce back” really goes a long way in describing the feeling of being alone that often comes with being on the road.
“Worry” chronicles the narrator’s realization that sometimes worrying about everyone else proves detrimental to your own development. “I thought you just wanted me to shake your hand, you held it out for a hand out and took my last dime” sums up what happens all too often when you attempt to please and help everyone and that feeling is captured perfectly in this song.
My favorite on the record is “Just Keep Driving”, an ode to life on the highway. With all of the downfalls of living on the road, it still continues to offer a sense of freedom that life settled down cannot provide. There is something to be said about not being tied down to everyday responsibilities and Wilkins does a great job of conveying that here.
Billed as Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros most places you can find the album, this is no way just a backing band. The cover in my opinion appropriately is labeled without Wilkins’ name. While Walt contributes most of the writing to the record, all of the members loan their vocals to the songs and when you hear them sing together you get the feeling that they have been playing together forever instead of just a few years. If I had to compare this record to something, I would say think of the better Paul Thorn records, and that is way this album feels.
You can learn more about Wilkins and the Mystiqueros at his website. While I really dig his solo stuff, I hope that this combination of band members continues to release albums even if they are sporadic.
