Slaid Cleaves in Ellsworth Maine

Slaid Cleaves is a singer songwriter raised in Berwick, Maine who has lived in the Austin, Texas area the last twenty years. Having recorded albums such as Broke Down, Wishbones, and Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away Cleaves has not had the " big break" but he has had a measure of success and gained some very good reviews.

Cleaves has been featured on Stephen King's WKIT in Bangor, Maine, in fact King wrote liner notes for Cleaves last album. So it was not a surprise to see Cleaves playing a benefit concert in Ellsworth.

The concert featured many songs that Cleaves fans would be familiar with such as Cry, Broke Down, Breakfast in Hell and Black T Shirt. Cleaves is very engaging, telling stories with the crowd freely and easily. Cleaves even has a yodeling portion of the show telling of the mentoring relationship with an Austin singer who has since passed who he always tries to feature a song for in his shows to keep his music alive. Yodeling may or may not be for you but it is quite an exclusive talent.

Cleaves, with the exception of the yodeling does nothing many others do not also do but he does do it well. A singer, songwriter, storyteller he might be closer to Todd Snider than Bob Dylan but for me his spoken voice is close to Arlo Guthrie. In all three cases these are not comparisons he would shy from I am sure.

Intelligent. Funny. Witty. Talented. A good songwriter. Listen to Green Mountains and Me to convince yourself of that fact. A night with Slaid Cleaves should be something you enjoy. When he comes to your town you should go. Buy the records. Artists like Slaid Cleaves need to be supported.

Alice's Restaraunt by Arlo Guthrie

This song from the Sixties was a protest song. You had to think about it to know it was. At eighteen minutes many might not get far enough into the song to understand the absurdity of the story Guthrie tells. He was not considered a military candidate due to an arrest for littering which is the basis of the song.

This song has special relevance for me and my children. We listened to it often when they were quite young. They did not understand it but they did like the rhythm and how the song went around and around.

LAter when my son was nine I took him to an Arlo Guthrie concert at the University. He enjoyed the show as much as any nine year old that gets tired. He remembers it though. We enjoyed the show.

As he approaches 16 he still enjoys the song. Last weekend he tells me that Alice's Restaraunt came on his shuffle and he listened to it. He listened. He remembers.

We usually play it once or twice around Thanksgiving. It is one of the only songs I know that relates to Thanksgiving.