Slaid Cleaves is a singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 born in Washington, D.C. and raised in South Berwick, Maine

South Berwick, Maine

South Berwick is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,220 at the 2010 census. South Berwick is home to Berwick Academy, a private, co-educational university-preparatory day school founded in 1791...

 and Round Pond, Maine. An alumnus of Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

, where he majored in English and philosophy, Cleaves lives in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

His full name is Richard Slaid Cleaves but Slaid is the name that he has used his entire life.

Slaid is now a full-time touring musician, but like most musicians has held many day jobs: janitor, warehouse rat, ice cream truck driver, rope-tow operator, film developer, groundskeeper, meter reader, and pizza delivery

Pizza delivery

Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria delivers a pizza to a customer. Delivery is normally made with an automobile, motor scooter, or bicycle.- Ordering :...

 driver. He was even a human guinea pig. He was paid to be a subject in drug studies by a pharmaceutical company.

Slaid's musical roots extend back prior to his days playing in a high school "garage band" with his childhood friend Rod Picott

Rod Picott

Rod Picott is a singer-songwriter whose music incorporates elements of Americana, alt-country, and folk. He grew up in New Hampshire, but relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 1994. After several years of playing local clubs and supporting such acts as Alison Krauss, he released his first album in...

. The two shared a love of music, especially Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

 and named their band The Magic Rats, after a character in Springsteen's song "Jungleland."

He brought his love of American artists like Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, CCR, and more with him to Cork, Ireland where he spent a semester of his junior year of college. To help pass the time he learned how to play the songs on guitar and on November 18, 1985 he made his debut as a busker - a street singer - in Cork City, Ireland.

After several false starts he started to gain notice around Portland, Maine and in 1990 released his debut cassette, The Promise. Only a few songs off this album, "Sweet Summertime", "Lonesome Highway" and "Wrecking Ball" still occasionally get played in concert. The original tape has unfortunately been lost, and only copies remain.

That was followed a year later by Looks Good from the Road, recorded with his rock band, The Moxie Men, which featured Slaid on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, his brother J. on bass, drummer Mark Cousins and Pip Walter on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and vocals. By the end of the year they were the darlings of the Portland press and touted as one of the bands "most likely to succeed"

However, Slaid's solo acoustic side took over and in 1991 he moved with his wife Karen to Austin, Texas. In 1992, he was a winner of the prestigious New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival

Kerrville Folk Festival

The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The event has run on a yearly basis since 1972. In November 2008, the Kerrville Folk Festival and Kerrville Wine & Music Festival were acquired...

, an award previously given to such artists as Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith

Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...

, Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen

Robert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...

 and Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

.

He continued to work hard in Austin, playing various clubs around the city, touring, and continuing to hone his craft as a songwriter. In 1997, he recorded and released his first national album, No Angel Knows for the Rounder-Philo label, which has been his home ever since.

In 2000, he gained national prominence when he had an Americana charts hit with his album and song Broke Down . The title track was co-written with his childhood friend Picott.

He continued to gain notice with his follow-up album, 2004's Wishbones, appearing on the ESPN2 show Cold Pizza

In 2006 he released Unsung, a collection of songs written by other singer-songwriters including Graham Weber, J.J. Baron, Michael O'Connor (who often tours with Cleaves), and Adam Carroll.

He tours nationally performing solo and with a band in many configurations.

Discography

• The Promise (1990 cassette)
• Looks Good From the Road (1991 cassette)
• The Promise/Looks Good From the Road (1998 CD rerelease)
• Life's Other Side (1992 cassette, rerelease 1997 CD)
• For the Brave and Free (1993 cassette, rerelease 2001 CD)
• No Angel Knows (1997)
• Broke Down (2000)
• Holiday Sampler EP (2001)
• Wishbones (2004)
• Unsung (2006)
• Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away (2009)
• Sorrow & Smoke/Live at The Horseshoe Lounge" (2011)

External links

• Slaid Cleaves page at Rounder Records
  Rounder Records
  Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
  
  
• Slaid Cleaves in the Austin Music Database
• Interview with Paul Johnston, November 2000