Slaid Cleaves; Live in Ballard Park

Saw a little gem of a show the other night - Slaid Cleaves live in Ridgefield, CT on July 24. It was an outdoor venue where Slaid and his bluesey guitar playing companion put on almost a 2 hours show that was quite enjoyable, especially considering it was a pretty pleasant New England summer evening.

First things first; Slaid Cleaves is a Maine native who's been down in Austin, TX - a place near and dear to the authors of this blog - for about 7 years now. He's put out 3 albums since 1997's No Angel Knows, the latest of which was an album of covers you've never heard of.

He was charming and chatty and engaging and played a bunch of folksy, fun songs. If you enjoy folk ballads, then you'd certainly like to see Slaid live if you get the chance. He's not going to blow your mind, but he's definitely going to make sure you have a great time.

Highlight of the night was definitely 'Oh Roberta,' a lovely tune off of his latest cover album, Unsung that he played towards the end of the show. A few other songs off that album are streaming on his myspace page.

Awesome dude of the night award goes to the guy sitting on a blanket by himself way up front with about 8 empty Sierra Nevada Pale Ales in front of him, and four more to go. This would be far less impressive except for the fact that, to my knowledge, there are no restroom facilities within a quarter mile.

Anyway, if you're a fan of folk music, and have not checked this guy out yet it might be worth your while to do so. Finally, Friday Sept. 7, in Edgerton Park in New Haven Slaid shares the stage with a stellar lineup of musicians including Greg Brown, Mary Gauthier, and The Campbell Brothers in an evening of music that may be worth your while if you're in the locale.

I don't have any Slaid tracks in my catalogue yet, so I'll leave you with a folk ballad by another artist instead. Slan go foill.

Listening pleasure - The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Odds and Ends

I have three talking points:

1) It's always fun to check out your Top 25 Most Played feature on itunes. It's a pretty good barometer as to where you stand musically. I think from now on, whenever anyone asks me what kind of music I'm into, I'll just throw some of these on a mix cd and say "enjoy." I'm not saying that this list completely defines my musical tastes (it lacks more tracks from Van and Bruce, in favor of more modern tracks), and it is definitely skewed due to various variables (a lot of chill songs that were listened to while studying, etc.), but it is still very interesting. Here's my list. Gentleman of the blog and readers, I'm very interested in your lists (I know JTR doesn't have itunes, but I'm sure that yahoomusic has something similar...but seriously, its getting kind of embarrassing for all of us.)

Little Gun's Top 25 Most Played
1. Land-Locked Blues - Bright Eyes
2. Secret Heart - Feist (Live at Chicago Park West)
3. West of Her Spine - Bell X1
4. Monster Ballads - Josh Ritter
5. The Hardest Part - Ryan Adams
6. Once In a Blue Moon - Van Morrison
7. Shelter - Ray LaMontagne
8. What'll We Do - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
9. Summerteeth - Wilco
10. Reasons To Lie - Whiskeytown
11. Pinball Machine - Bell X1
12. Jesus, etc. - Wilco
13. Happy - Brandi Carlile
14. Houses on the Hill - Whiskeytown (Live on KCRW)
15. Sovay - Andrew Bird
16. Strange Condition - Pete Yorn
17. Girl From the North Country - Bob Dylan
18. Mrs. Potters Lullaby - Counting Crows
19. What Would I Do Without You? - Ray Charles
20. The Henney Buggey Band - Sufjan Stevens
21. Good Man - Josh Ritter
22. Jacksonville Skyline - Whiskeytown
23. Jesus, etc. - Wilco (Not a typo, I have two of this track on my itunes and they BOTH made the Top 25...that's how good a song this is)
24. Gotta Have You - The Weepies
25. When the Night Feels My Song - Bedouin Soundclash (really got caught up in this track last year...along with every 16 year old girl in the nation)

2. And that was just the first talking point. Second talking point: You're an artist, and you're playing at a sweet intimate music venue (Magic Stick in Detroit, First Ave in MN, Knitting Factory in NYC, etc.). What drink do you have with you on stage? Do you have a bottle of wine like Eddie Vedder? Are you sipping a Red Stripe like Bryce Dessner of The National
(I will post on their show I saw in June sometime in the next year)? Or do you use up so much energy on stage like The Boss that you've gotta hydrate with some H20? At first, I was going to go with my favorite beer currently, Bell's Two-Hearted Ale out of Kalamazoo, MI, but it might be too heavy for a show. So I switched to a brew that's equally as enjoyable, and also may quench the thirst a bit more: Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale (hopefully not too obvious a pick). Again, interested in your choices.

3. Austin based Voxtrot is a solid band whose album I just purchased. They're basically an 80's rock sounding band with piano, strings, and catchy lyrics thrown in the mix. Check out their myspace.

Paintjam

Trust me it's music related...enjoy the tunes while you watch, but make sure to watch until the end...