Slaid Cleaves: Drinkin' Days

SONG Drinkin' Days

SONGWRITERS Slaid Cleaves and Karen Poston

PERFORMER Slaid Cleaves

APPEARS ON Wishbones (2004)

NOTES 1. The Carousel, The Horseshoe, The Broken Spoke, and The Gaslight are all bars and clubs in Austin, Texas. 2. "Huntsville" refers to the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. 3. Last week, Slaid Cleaves released a new CD called Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away.

Slaid Cleaves' official biography is deceptively simple on the one hand and perfectly accurate on the other: Slaid Cleaves. Grew up in Maine. Lives in Texas. Writes songs. Makes records. Travels around. Tries to be good. According to allmusic.com,

Cleaves majored in English and philosophy at Tufts University in his native New England, and began playing music in garage rock bands while still in high school. While in college, he learned guitar, and later spent a summer in Ireland. He began busking on the streets in Cork, and that was the turning point when he decided to become a folksinger. At Tufts, he developed his guitar skills and studied the music of Woody Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen. He recalled that he had listened to the music of Woody Guthrie, Carl Perkins, and Hank Williams as a child, so he went back into his parents' attic to discover a treasure trove of albums. After many years in Portland, ME, he sought new mountains to climb, and found some of them after moving to Austin, TX, in 1992.

This bio omits both Cleaves' pleasing Jackson Browne-like tenor and his gift for telling stories via terrific hooks. Although difficult to classify, Cleaves' music clearly draws on country and folk-rock. His vocals have a wry, rueful presence that he puts to excellent use in "Drinkin' Days."

Austin-based performers often refer to the city as if it were an exclusive club. Slaid Cleaves takes a different approach: His references to the city make it open to everyone. The Carousel, the Broken Spoke, the Horseshoe, and the Gaslight could be anywhere, and indeed probably are. (O.K., maybe not the Broken Spoke, pictured below.) "Drinkin' Days" combines the classic folk and country themes of drinking, fighting, and prison, as its protagonist finds himself suddenly sober and on his way to prison after inadvertently brawling with a police officer.

The Broken Spoke:

LYRICS

My drinkin' days are over

No more nights at the Carousel

My buddies say they're gonna miss me but

Who could ever tell

I never knew what time it was

'Til closing time came 'round

My drinkin' days are over

I'm still trouble bound

I used to hang out at the Horseshoe

You'd see me spinning at the Broken Spoke

I'd take my gal to the Gaslight

We lived on whiskey and smoke

Don't know how it all got started

Didn't want to hurt no one

Some bad luck and what's done can't be undone

Well it was way past midnight

Anetta hollered out last call

I turned around and Wranglin' Ron

Was headed for a brawl

I didn't know that other guy was a cop

I guess I didn't care

Sometimes you gotta act like you've got a pair

My drinkin' days are over...

I got a ride out to Huntsville

I'll be there a while

I don't have any regrets, well

Maybe just a few

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

My drinkin' days are over...