The image of Slaid Cleaves sat enjoying a whisky seems very apt after reading his thoughts on songs…”I tend to think of songs as the whiskey of writing. Distilled down to the essence, powerful, concentrated, immediate. You can take it all in and really feel it in just seconds.”
Now twenty-five years into his storied career, Cleaves’ songwriting has never been more potent than on his new album Ghost on the Car Radio, out June 23. Listen to Hickory below, there’s no denying the power and immediacy here, Slaid shared the following on the song:
Ghost on the Car Radio is Slaid Cleaves’ first release since 2013’s Still Fighting the War, which was praised as “one of the year’s best albums” by American Songwriter and “carefully crafted…songs about the struggles of the heart in hard times” by the Wall Street Journal. The New York Daily News called his music “a treasure hidden in plain sight,” while the Austin Chronicle declared, “there are few contemporaries that compare. He’s become a master craftsman on the order of Guy Clark and John Prine.”
Slaid will be in the UK to support Ghost on the Car Radio, check out dates here: https://www.slaidcleaves.com/tour