Music / americana
Review: An Evening with Slaid Cleaves, The Tunnels
As the crowd make their way to The Tunnels, they may be feeling lucky to be about to witness a great artist like Slaid Cleaves in the cosiness of a small-ish venue. The setting is very minimal: just an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar are waiting to shine onstage. Slaid Cleaves, although considered by some “of the order of Guy Clark and John Prine”, is a very humble guy from Maine. He’s worked all sorts of jobs to support his musician lifestyle over the years: warehouse worker, meter reader and even guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company. By sharing these anecdotes, Cleaves connects the audience to his unpretentious side. His close emotional proximity to his fans strikes me straightaway. The set is split in two parts with a break in the middle, enough time for Slaid to run to the merch stall and happily exchange words with the crowd and sign records. Also, most of his set list is composed of requests that fans made on social media prior to the gig.
His set mixes some old favourites, some covers, and some songs from his new album Ghost on the Car Radio, released this year. The audience sings along with opener Horseshoe Lounge, makes people laugh with Texas Love Song and he also makes people cry with Lydia, a story about a miner’s catastrophe. Slaid is a great storyteller who takes the audience on a journey to the unglamourous reality of life. His lyrics are relatable, powerful and sincere. It is hard to believe that such great talent has been ‘hidden’ over the last twenty odd years. His neat performance of Broke Down, his only song to reach the American charts, is a reminder of his potential as a songwriter. Towards the end of the set, Cleaves lets M.C. Hanson perform one of his songs, allowing him to steal a bit of thunder to create his own sparkles. Finally new song The Old Guard finishes the show with Slaid walking between the rows of chairs, fixing the crowd with his deep look as if talking directly to us.
This evening, The Tunnels witness another beautiful evening of country music, finger-picking and storytelling (and even mind-blowing yodeling!). There is no extra space on stage for other ornaments, futile instrumentation or star tantrums: only true musicians who believe deeply in what they do and who are not afraid of stripping their art down to a bare minimum, and letting the purity of the music speak the truth.
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