Event

SLAID CLEAVES

Slaid Cleaves spins stories with a novelists eye and a poets heart. Twenty years into his career, the celebrated songwriters Still Fighting the War spotlights an artist in peak form. Cleaves seamless new collection delivers vivid snapshots as wildly cinematic as they are carefully chiseled. Dress William Faulkner with faded jeans and a worn six-string for a good idea. Slaids a craftsman, says Terri Hendrix, who sings harmony on Texas Love Song. He goes about his songs like a woodworker.

Accordingly, Cleaves earthy narratives stand oak strong. Men go off to war for a hundred reasons/But they all come home with the same demons, he sings on the albums title track. Some you can keep at bay for a while/Some will pin you to the floor/Youve been home for a couple of years now, buddy/But youre still fighting the war. Few writers frame bruised souls as clearly. Fewer still deliver a punch with such striking immediacy.