SLAID CLEAVES
Unsung
Rounder
· This collection of cover songs by under-appreciated writers features a guest vocal by Mary Gauthier.
It seems at first ironic that a songwriter of Slaid Cleaves’s mastery would choose to put forth an album of 13 songs by other songwriters, most of whom would be known only to connoisseurs. But really, it makes perfect sense. How does a writer gain Cleaves’s skills but by saturating himself in the works of other top-notch writers?
The most striking feature of this album is that Cleaves has taken songs by people such as Adam Carroll and Peter Keane and made them sound like his own, treating them in such a manner that they could slip seamlessly into any of Cleaves’s own shows. He encourages each song to breathe by leaving it wide open, decorated only by his melodic whisper, and simple, driving instrumentation. Amidst a sea of gourmet music, the standout is "Flowered Dresses" by Karen Poston, who also wrote "Lydia," Cleaves’s most requested song at live performances.
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