RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

 

AUSTIN LINKS  

Austin Music

Third Album in Stores

The Beaumonts

The Beaumonts come out of the rebel Saustex Records stable, and so in many ways are sort of a anti-Austin group, more inclined lampoon Texas music culture than kowtow to it.  Their brand of musical humor can be way over the top, as in the video below, or it can be sly and clever, as per the following press release announcing the band's third album.

Amarillo, Texas - Coody Gold Enterprises has announced the release of The Beaumonts' third album "Hey Y'all It's" (The Beaumonts) via Saustex Records. Coody Gold, Texas Panhandle music impresario and the band's longtime manager, had this to say about the band's new release: "Hey Y'all It's" (The Beaumonts) represents a lot of musical growth for these five young men from Lubbock. Lyrically it explores deep themes and issues of average looking, common, rural folks who find themselves morally adrift in the great metropolises of our fine country...ill-equipped to deal with the abundance and variety of temptations they face in their daily lives that include sex, drugs and alcohol. The Beaumonts are no strangers to these same temptations, and their many fans and listeners will no doubt identify with the heartfelt and personal portrayals of these struggles in their songs."

The production of the new album was slightly delayed due to the departure of longtime bassist Don Ed Rosewood who was forced to leave the band owing to multiple claims of child-support. Don Ed is currently attending truck driving school in the DFW area and by all reports is learning to handle the big rigs pretty well. His boots have been filled by hired gun Duck Buford - third runner-up in Hub City Weekly's 2008 best bass player poll. The rest of the band's trademark lineup remains intact: Troy Wayne Delco - lead vocals and guitar, "Hollywood" Steve Vegas - lead guitar and vocals, Jimmy Ned Messer - drums, and, Chip Northcutt - pedal steel guitar.

 

Coattails

Those familiar with the Austin, Texas music scene, and what has been going on there over the past five years, will be familiar with Coattails. That didn't happen by accident. Besides being fine musicians, drummer Eitel Colberg, guitarist-singer Damien Howard, keyboardist-singer Michael Martinez, and bassist Kevin K. Rowe have worked hard to establish and expand their market. They have formed a collective called Native Waves, consisting of fellow musicians, artists, photographers, bloggers, videographers, and producers, who work in collaborative ways to make an impact at events like Austin's own SXSW festival. Backing Coattails is worth everybody's time.

The Lovely Sparrows

The Lovely Sparrows has a long history in the Austin music scene, most notably in the persona of Austin-based songwriter Shawn Jones. The Sparrows have released numerous EPs over the years and gathered praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Spin, Paste, and Billboard. Now they are back with an LP titled "Shake the Shadow". This thing has been in the works for seven years, during which Jones has gone through big changes, including (according to his press release) "exodus from Austin to the woods just outside of Lockhart, TX- to rebuild an old house, and regain his bearings. During this time, Jones quit teaching, returned to grad school to pursue Music Composition- and immersed himself in the works of Bartok, Eno, Ives, and Reich while simultaneously co-developing a magical realist video game. The songs, in turn, became looser, more of a sound collage than before, as a reflection of these blurring influences and tastes."

 

   

Bob Livingston

Photo at Right, borrowed from a Facebook posting by Bob Livingston Music: The Gonzo Survivors at the Treehouse in Austin about 1985. L to R: Dan Cook, Paul Pearcy, Bob Livingston, Stevie Ray Vaughan & John Inmon. (Photo in the kitchen by Peach Reynolds.)

The Lost Gonzo Band was a musical unit built in 1971 to back the emerging outlaws of Texas Country: Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Michael Martin Murphey. They created the sound that characterized the unique country outlaw orientation of the "Cosmic Cowboy" (referencing a Murphey tune inspired by a Bob Livingston wish to be just such a dude). The Gonzos were one of the key starships of Texas Alternative Country, which put a range of spacey cowboys in the Texas Music Hall of Fame, including Jerry Jeff Walker and Willis Alan Ramsey, not to mention Willie Nelson. One wonders how Willie achieved the honor using only his first and last name, though Waylon Jennings was also able to achieve the feat. The original members of the Lost Gonzo Band were Bob Livingston, Gary P. Nunn, John Inmon, Kelly Dunn, Tomas Ramirez and Donny Dolan. The Lost Gonzo Band released three albums of their own: Lost Gonzo Band (1976) and Thrills (1977) on MCA Records, and Signs of Life (1977) on Capitol Records. That band disbanded in 1980, but surviving members have occasionally reconvened over the years for special events.

Bob Livingston, the singer-songwriter and bassist, began working with the U.S. State Department in the 1980s, performing throughout the world as part of their cultural and diplomatic outreach. He has been performing with his son Tucker, and in 2005 they toured Africa for concerts in Morocco, Tunisia and Angola and they have also done State Department tours of Vietnam and Thailand. Livingston released a CD titled Gypsy Alibi (New Wilderness Records) in 2011, which was honored as the "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards that same year.

Livingston is the president of Texas Music International (TMI), a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization founded in 1995 to explore multi-cultural themes in music and art and to help promote the music and folklore of Texas internationally. TMI seeks to educate, entertain and empower audiences around the globe with a sense of brotherhood and cross-cultural understanding.

Austin Sage Ray Wylie Hubbard

"Count My Blessings"

We at RARWRITER.com are great admirers of Ray Wylie Hubbard, and here's why: Ray Wylie and Rick Richards performing an unreleased song, "Count My Blessings." This version was filmed at the 2011 Spring Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill's WHQ during SXSW® music week in Austin, Texas.

 

Austin-Based Dustin Welch

Exploring Themes Sacred and Profane

Dustin Welch, the son of highly-respected songwriter Kevin Welch, continues to chart his own adventurous path following the twisted sonic roadmap of his dreams.

By Brian O'Neal

AUSTIN, Texas — Building on the thrilling strengths of his fearsomely original 2009 debut, Whisky Priest (which LoneStarMusic magazine deemed “one of the most compelling albums to come out of Texas in the past year”), Austin-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dustin Welch is set to release his second album, Tijuana Bible, on February 12, 2013 via his own Super Rooster Records.

Like Whisky Priest before it, Tijuana Bible finds the Nashville-born Welch playing the part of a wickedly mysterious carnival barker, bouncing strains of Americana, rock, and folk music off of each other like a hall of funhouse mirrors. His lyrics are similarly multifaceted, reflecting literary influences ranging from American gothic to gritty pulp fiction and themes both sacred and profane. Welch calls Whisky Priest and Tijuana Bible (named after the hand-drawn pornographic pamphlets that were passed around in Depression-era work camps) the first two parts of a projected trilogy. Although the songs are neither overtly religious nor linked to each other as part of a conceptual story, many of them do share a sense of desperation-hardened fortitude — along with hints of mono-mythic mysticism. Welch, a voracious reader who home-schooled his way out of high school and now cites authors like Graham Greene, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, has read his share of Joseph Campbell, too.

“I’ve thought a lot about [Campbell’s writings on] myth and storytelling, because it’s so much a part of our fabric, and there’s a lot of that kind of mysticism in it,” Welch says. “I think a lot of these songs have a kind of glimmer of hope to them. They’re about these folks who are going through really hard times, but there’s that little bit of hope that keeps them going. Which, again, is a lot like the heroes that Joseph Campbell talked about. That’s the kind of state they’re in; I just drag these characters through all hell, but they’re holding on against all odds for this once chance of redemption.”

As for the music, well, Welch will swear on a bible — Tijuana, King James, whatever you’ve got on hand — that he dreamt it all up. And not just a song, ŕ la Keith Richards and “Satisfaction,” but a whole damn sound. It came to him as a vision — so loud and clear he could see it like a moving picture in his mind, the notes and colors and shapes coming into sharp relief just as he was drifting off to sleep. The melody was strange and complex, a beautiful cacophony of disparate styles clashing together all at once: Celtic and Appalachian folk music set to driving rock and dexterous jazz rhythms, with big harmonies sung in a “gritty and raw,” “archaic” sounding language. “It was profound,” he recalls. “It felt like horses running wild. And I’d never heard anything like it.”

That was half his life ago, but that sound still resonates within him. And through him, because that music Welch first heard in a dream some 15 years ago is now very much his own sound, still wild and untamed but corralled into the digital grooves of Tijuana Bible, which he recorded in Austin at the home studio of producer/drummer Eldridge Goins. In addition to writing or co-writing all 11 songs, Welch plays banjo and acoustic and gut-string guitar on the album; other players include electric guitarist Jeremy Nail, violinist Trisha Keefer, pianist Scotty Bucklin, and bassist Steve Bernal, among others.

“We ended up doing some overdubs, but mostly we recorded everything live in the same room in three different sessions in three days,” says Welch, who made himself right at home on Austin’s celebrated live music scene upon moving to town just a few years ago. “This group of guys, they’re all really sophisticated musicians, and it’s funny because a lot of real sophisticated musicians like that, really all they want to do deep down is rock.”

Listen to Welch snarl, stomp, and tear his way through the songs on Tijuana Bible, or watch him ratchet up the intensity even higher onstage (even when playing solo acoustic!), and you’d naturally assume the guy was born wanting to rock himself. Fact is, he was a bit of a late bloomer, at least to that side of his musical personality. As happens when your father is a renowned songwriter (Kevin Welch) with a Nashville publishing deal and you grow up around some of the most gifted writers and hottest pickers in Music City, U.S.A., Welch was born and raised surrounded by music and displayed a natural affinity for any instrument he could get his hands on practically from the time he was in diapers. But as a teenager, most of the music other kids his age were into just didn’t speak to him. He avoided MTV and VH1. “I remember the first time I heard Nirvana’s Nevermind, I thought was the worst shit I’d ever heard,” he admits with a laugh. (Jimi Hendrix didn’t impress him much at the time, either — though he’s quick to note that he’s since learned to appreciate both.)

In lieu of rock, Welch’s earliest musical influences just naturally skewed more towards jazz, classical, blues and country. In high school, he flirted with jammy hippie fare in a band called the Groundlings (featuring singer Cary Ann Hearst, now of the Americana duo Shovels and Rope), and he later spent his early 20s playing rootsy, old-timey country and blues in Nashville’s the Swindlers with fellow “Music Row brats” Justin Townes Earle, Travis Nicholson and Cory Younts (Old Crow Medicine Show, Jack White). But then fate came knocking via an offer to join a West Coast Celtic punk band called the Scotch Greens in need of a touring utility player. It wasn’t long before Welch was reveling in the rush of playing full-throttle punk rock (on banjo and Resonator slide guitar, no less) in front of moshing Warped Tour fans.

“I think it made a big impression on me the way that people reacted to that stuff, and just the energy of it,” he says. “I’d see 500 people in a crowd of 1,500 all singing along, pumping their fists in the air. I think music can really be something that the listener can participate in. It’s the same way with some speakers and preachers; their message might not be anything real profound, but the way they deliver it, that intensity just builds and builds until everybody is empowered and feels like making a difference in the world.

All that energy and intensity certainly made a difference in Welch’s own music, once he finished his time with the Scotch Greens and moved to Austin to begin his solo career in earnest. “It came through in both my writing and my delivery,” he says. “It gave me the confidence to just make things slightly more . . . exaggerated. Exaggerated rather than glorified, though, which is what you hear in a lot of more commercial music. When it’s over-glorified, I think it robs it of its soul. But I’ve really been getting pretty idealistic about how much music can change the world, and I think the more heartfelt communication we have, the better place the world can be.”

That’s not a belief he holds on blind faith, either; he’s witnessed it action. Welch has spent the better part of the past year and a half volunteering for the Texas chapter of the Soldier Songs & Voices program, a national organization he helped found that provides free music and songwriting lessons — and even guitars — to Armed Forces veterans. Twice a week, he meets with men and women who are finding through song a means to not only share their stories, but also cope with and make sense of their own journeys to hell and back again. “These guys we’re working with, they’re really getting their lives back, and I see it more and more every week,” Welch marvels. “And music can work that way across the board, with anybody, because it really is our common denominator. It’s the universal language, and it resonates with people on this subconscious, emotional way.”

And on Tijuana Bible, Welch uses that language to tell the trials and tribulations of a varied cast of battered and broken but not quite entirely beaten souls, ranging from the Vietnam vet of “Sparrows” to the fragile Hollywood China doll of “Party Girl” to the fire-starting whore’s son of the album’s chaotic closing title track. There are more sinners than saints here, and some of them are admittedly a lot farther off from redemption than others. As the protagonist in “St. Lucy’s Eyes” warns, “This life I lead, it’s not for the faint of heart.” But even at its darkest, Welch’s music still thunders with the exuberant spirit of horses running wild, indifferent to the line between fever dream and prophesy.

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Funny Stuff

Darin Murphy Does Sir George Martin

Darin Murphy, of the Austin, Texas band Future Clouds and Radar, the follow-up project of '90s breakthrough act Cotton Mather, also fronted by singer-songwriter Robert Harrison, is one talented impersonator, along with being a fine musician. Check out his spot-on and amazingly straight-faced interview below in which he portrays, and takes the piss out of, legendary Beatles Producer Sir George Martin.

 

And now that you are tuned in to Murphy, Harrison, and Future Clouds and Radar, check out this live performance, which for RARWRITER.com's money is about as coolly refreshing and reminiscent of an earlier musical glory as exists anywhere on the planet today. Great recording voices.

 

Future Clouds and Radar is the brainchild of frontman-guitarist-vocalist-and-songwriter Robert Harrison, who first broke through in the 1990s with his band Cotton Mather. Noel Gallagher of Oasis heard the band's Kon Tiki LP, and no doubt recognized the same Beatlesque overtones that were the inspiration for Oasis as well, and the two bands toured together, with Cotton Mather opening. This inspired the re-release of Kon Tiki in Britain, where it blew up, yielding the hit song "Lost My Motto", which was later featured on Little Stevie Van Zandt's Coolest Songs In The World Vol. 1. The tune is regularly played on Van Zandt's Underground Garage series on Sirius Radio.

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Seth Walker

Seth Walker and pianist Stefano Intelisano perform a nice rendition of "You Don't Know Me" live on Austin's own ME Television. Walker is an Austin mainstay, a blues regular who first burst onto the scene in 1997, with his first album release, and since then has shared stages with the top bluesmen in the world, including B.B. King, Robert Cray, and Austin's own W.C. Clark ("Godfather of Austin Blues") among many others. He has recently been a featured artist on the No Depression music site. Walker is another of those artist utilizing the suddenly popular KickStarter financing method to cover expenses on his next album. Learn more about the talented Mr. Walker at www.sethwalker.com .

 

 

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL

The Austin City Limits Music Festival took place in Austin,  Texas last week. Pretty cool that you could watch it live on YouTube.

 

 

SXSW 2010 Archives - Click Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the Austin 360 logo to view news and information on the Austin community.

GO TO: ARTIST NEWS

YOU ARE ON THE AUSTIN LINKS PAGE

 

 

 

Slaid Cleaves

Prepares Double Live LP

AUSTIN, Texas — When Slaid Cleaves moved from Portland, Maine, to Austin, Texas, at the tail end of 1991, he landed on South Lamar Boulevard, a few blocks from the legendarily seedy Horseshoe Lounge. But as he points out on his new live album, “It was many years of drivin’ by before I worked up the courage to come in through the door.”

Maybe his New Englander’s reserve got the better of him; one thing most Texans do not fear is walking into a bar. But curiosity and, no doubt, the lure of stories contained within eventually won out, and in 2000, Slaid wound up releasing “Horseshoe Lounge,” an ode to the 46-year-old beer joint, on his breakout CD Broke Down. A turning point in his career, "Broke Down" transformed Cleaves from feckless Austin singer/songwriter, playing open mics and running sound at the legendary Cactus Cafe to Americana chart-topping, New York Times-lauded (“One of the finest songwriters from Texas”) national touring artist. Oh, yeah, and the 2001 Austin Music Awards named the title track, written with childhood pal Rod Picott, Best Song of the Year.

It had been a rough eight years in Austin for Cleaves, having left the small pond of Portland, Maine, where he'd busked and played bars and started the alt-country (before the term existed) Moxie Men, for the allure of milder winters, a fledgling South by Southwest, and a desire to hone his skills amongst the likes of Joe Ely and Lucinda Williams. But with the Americana radio success of "Broke Down" and subsequent tireless touring of the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands, Cleaves made good use of the 2000s, connecting to audiences and developing a reputation for sincere and entertaining shows featuring his intimate songs presented with a variety of top-notch instrumental accompanists.

And now, 20 years after his Southwest migration, he’s releasing his first live album — a double disc, no less, titled Sorrow & Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, on Music Road Records on September 6, 2011.

When he first contemplated a live album, Slaid turned to the massive collection of performance recordings he’s acquired during his decades as a wandering troubadour, traveling from stage to stage and entrancing audiences with tales of lost souls. But he couldn’t bring himself to sort through it all, and decided to do fresh versions.

“I thought, ‘How can I make a live record special?’” Slaid explains. ‘Well, it has to be in a special place.’” It makes perfect sense; so many of his songs reference watering holes anyway. Sorrow & Smoke fully conveys the spirit of an intimate yet jovial crowd: Clinking beer bottles. Laughter. Sing-alongs. Good-natured heckling. “The give and take, this sort of conversation I have with the audience,” he says. And of course, the self-deprecating humor that leavens the singer’s stories of people struggling to make sense of their lives.

“That’s a big part of the show and I wanted to capture that as much as possible,” he says, adding, “I also wanted to give an honest depiction of what my show is like these days.”

Unlike his beautifully realized, Gurf Morlix-produced studio albums, Sorrow & Smoke is a more stripped-down, mostly acoustic affair. South Texas Walk of Fame guitarist Michael O’Connor twangs acoustic lead guitar with Slaid at “the Shoe” while accordionist/trumpeter/harmonica player and all-around character Oliver Steck keeps the crowd on their toes. (Both O'Connor and Steck have ridden many a mile in the van with Slaid over the years.) The plan was for a single disc, but there was so much good material, they decided to pack it with Slaid’s most-requested tunes and “greatest hits” — the ones he likes to joke carried him from “total obscurity” to “relative obscurity.”

Up to now, you had to catch Slaid live or read interviews to hear quips like that. And until you know that side of him, you can’t really appreciate him. He’s the kind of guy who will casually place one of his most requested compositions, “Breakfast in Hell,” about an ill-fated lumberjack, into a category he calls the “narrative workplace disaster song.” (That tune, on 2000’s Broke Down, helped elevate him beyond “relative obscurity.”)

The live album also gives Slaid a chance to fully exercise his yodeling skills, honed through tutoring by none other than his “mentor and hero,” the late master Don Walser. In tribute, he delivers two Walser tunes: “Texas Top Hand” and “Rolling Stone from Texas.” (They follow his “warmup” song, “Horses,” about his parents’ neighbor, Willie Jr., whose hard-luck line is, “If it weren’t for horses and divorces, I’d be much better off today.”)

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that Slaid’s not a morose guy. But he’s a channeler of hurt and heartache, with an uncanny ability to chronicle despair — and beauty — in verses of startlingly simple eloquence. Despite their economy, his lyrics are strikingly detailed. “Just a little cut up on your brow / The principal said don't come back now.” “Your date of grace is due / And you’ve pawned everything you own.”

He’s such a skilled wordsmith he could very easily tell you all about himself instead of hiring someone else to do it. His website has always been a repository of sparklingly told stories that never bear an ounce of untruth, like the one about when he had a whole Austin-to-Nashville plane flight to himself. He and the crew had a fine old time. It’s too bad he recently took down some older chapters, like the heartrending story about how his dog got shot. “Dogs. You gotta love ’em. They are designed to break your heart,” he wrote. Perhaps not coincidentally, the title of his sterling last album was Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away. (The title comes from “Cry,” its opening track. The closer, “Temporary,” is written from tombstone epitaphs; coincidentally, the album’s liner notes were written by one of Slaid’s biggest fans, horror novelist and fellow Mainer Stephen King, who knows from cemeteries.)

Slaid actually did write his own bio once. It reads, “Slaid Cleaves. Grew up in Maine. Lives in Texas. Writes songs. Makes records. Travels around. Tries to be good.” Just like his songs, it speaks volumes with just a few well-chosen words. And sounds so much like verse, you almost want to hear it set to music. Maybe he could drop it into a set at the Horseshoe Lounge. He might have to hurry, though. Like much of funky old Austin, the Horseshoe’s days may be numbered; Slaid says he heard the land it’s on has been bought up by yet another developer.

All the more reason to hold dear this intertwined history of a classic dive bar and a singer who spins classic tales from those who populate such places. Because if everything you love will be taken away, at least musical memories can remain. And if you’ve never been to the Horsehoe or seen Slaid Cleaves perform, with Sorrow & Smoke you’ll still get the picture. Loud and clear.
# # #

For more information on Slaid Cleaves please contact Conqueroo:
Cary Baker • (323) 656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com

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NOTE TO READERS:
The Austin Links from 2006-2009 are archived, so if you are not finding the profiles you have seen on this page previously, you might either explore the following links or, probably better, use this link to go to the Links at RARWRITER Artist Index.

2006-2009 Austin Links:

Austin Links #1 Archive

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Photo: "Austin At Night"

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