Slaid Cleaves Live 'Down At The Horseshoe Lounge'

In a completely unpublicized and hush-hush way, Slaid Cleaves recorded a live record at the Horseshoe Lounge last night (April 20, 2010). Well, it might turn into a live record. All the elements were there.

-Slaid and Michael O'Connor played a whole slew of his greatest hits.

-There was a gent there recording the whole thing to an Alesis 8-track recorder.

-A bunch of people somehow got word of the show and brought their friends (I'd estimate the crowd at around a hundred folks).

-The crowd was very quiet, enthusiastic and appreciative (which if you've been to the 'Shoe, you know is not the case. Ever.)

-Slaid hedged his bets after the first warm-up song saying that they were recording and if the recording turned out well, it might make it onto a cd. He didn't say the words "Live CD" so I reckon it could end up as filler at the end of a studio record. Then again, he didn't not say "Live CD" so who the hell knows?

-Slaid also encouraged folks to play shuffleboard and pool (but not the jukebox). I can only presume this encouragement was geared towards capturing some of the ambiance that drives the character of the Horseshoe.

I have loved Slaid's music for a long long time and honestly wonder why it took so long to have a run at making Live 'Down At The Horseshoe Lounge' happen (or whatever the name ends up being if at all). I'm glad it happened when it did and glad I was able to be there. I hope Team Slaid are able to get something usable from last night. And if they didn't, maybe they'll try again sometime soon.

Slaid has a penchant for taking his time in between studio records with new original material [Broke Down in 2000, Wishbones in 2004 and Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away in 2009]. I mention that only because a live cd would help fill some of the gap between the last album and the next in the same way that Unsung did in 2006 [sidebar: damn, seems to me like it was more recent than 2006].

In digging through my own Slaid archives, I found two live recordings of "Horseshoe Lounge" five-and-a-half years apart that I've included below. The first of which is from Little Brother's in Columbus, OH amazingly / coincidentally six years to the day from yesterday's show. The other is from the Cactus Cafe this past December. [Download the mp3s from the links below]

2004.04.20 - Little Brothers - Columbus, OH


2009.12.10 - The Cactus Cafe - Austin, TX

Alt-512's Monthly Album Reviews & Recommendations

Recently started getting some records to preview (and subsequently review) from ReviewShine. Given the amount of records to preview/review from ReviewShine, a full write-up is out of the question. I guess that means that I'll just write up a few records each month (or so, as time permits). So, we gotta start somewhere. And that somewhere is...

The first record up to bat is Kevin Anthony's North Star (buy). I enjoyed the feel of this record. Had a bit of a cajun feel with the snare drums and fiddle starting out with "Hurricane Ike". The second track, more straight up country fare, "Texas Skies" was a bit peculiar to me in that it's a song about leaving Texas (gasp!). I really found the ending odd in that there's an uncertainty about returning to Texas (Anthony now calls Minnesota home). An odd twist on the ages-old theme of loving home and longing to return there. Worth a listen or download of a few songs from iTunes.

The next record that caught my ear was Tim Harwill's The Wander Man Revisited (buy). Harwill's tag on his site is "too folk for country, too country for rock 'n roll." That tagline really sets the tone for his music. The whole time I listened to this record, I was trying to determine who or what it was reminding me of. There are lots of elements, musical and thematic, that remind of a less country version of Merle Haggard or Dwight Yoakam. The thing that it most reminded me of was a full fledged country version of Jimmy Buffett. Imagine if Jimmy Buffett has stayed on his country path and never gone to Key West with Jerry Jeff back when. I imagine it sounds a lot like this. Having just seen Crazy Heart (and listened to the soundtrack), it strikes me that many of these songs would fit right into Bad Blake's catalog. Get this record. For now, I gotta go order Tim Harwill's other records.

While so not well known States-side, Manchester's Buchanan offer a solid piece of traditional country fare with Suit of Lights due out in February. With traditional, straight-ahead classic country of this sort, the comparisons are often obvious. This record lives up to many of those would-be comparisons while at the same time preserving it yet, somehow, without going into too many of the age-old themes. Something about this record really grabbed me in a way that this sliver of OKOM doesn't normally. I particularly enjoyed the history lesson of Jim Todd's Blues. Buy this record.

I'll throw in a few other notes on the new records from Ray Wylie Hubbard, I See Hawks In LA and Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor.

--If you enjoyed RWH's Growl or Snake Farm records, go get A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) (buy).

--I See Hawks In LA's new record Shoulda Been Gold (buy) pulls together some of the bands' best tunes from the last decade as well as several new/unreleased numbers. This is a great record for old fans and new fans alike. It strikes a great balance that old fans will feel like they're getting their money's worth with the remastered and remixed older tunes and of course the new tunes also rock.

--Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor have a new record out called Hard Times (buy). I caught the streaming version on bandcamp and so can you. This is a really enjoyable record about the denizens of Texas Gulf Coast and the particular kind of people you find there.

--Finally, the soundtrack to the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart has some outstanding originals penned by Ryan Bingham, T-Bone Burnett & Steven Bruton. This one is also worth your money.