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Ghost On The Car Radio

by Slaid Cleaves

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Nick Green
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Nick Green A craftsman at the top of his trade- criminally ignored Favorite track: Still Be Mine.
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1.
Already Gone 03:02
2.
3.
4.
Little Guys 03:02
5.
Primer Gray 03:58
6.
Hickory 03:38
7.
8.
9.
10.
To Be Held 03:18
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12.
Junkyard 02:14

about

SLAID CLEAVES - 'GHOST ON THE CAR RADIO'

"I 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," says Slaid Cleaves.

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.

The characters in Slaid Cleaves' songs live in unglamorous reality. They work dead-end jobs, they run out of money, they grow old, they hold on to each other (or not), and they die. With an eye for the beauty in everyday life, he tells their stories, bringing a bit of empathy to their uncaring world.

On "Take Home Pay," co-written with his longtime friend Rod Picott, Cleaves sings from the perspective of an aging manual laborer, fighting looming regret and sadness with stubborn resiliency (and opioid use).

On my way down to the pawn shop
A couple hundred is all I need
If I have to, I'll hit the blood bank
I'm bone dry but I can always bleed

I got some Oxy to keep me moving
It slowly takes some things away
The only thing I was scared of losing
She packed up and left today

"As befits the times we live in, there's a heavy dose of disappointment and disillusion there," he says. "But somehow, through the worst of it, optimism remains, as if to say, "Yeah, things are pretty bad out there. But there's still some good stuff if you know where to look."

One place his characters find solace is with each other. Love songs are somewhat new songwriting territory for Cleaves. He approaches them less as a romantic gesture, and more as a world-weary appreciation of the one who's seen seen you through thick and thin, as in the song "So Good to Me."

Times were tough but we were tougher
Slings and arrows we did suffer
Scars, we've got a few, but who has not

Words of love and words of anger
Times of peace and times of danger
Never take for granted what we've got

Described as "terse, clear and heartfelt" (NPR Fresh Air), Cleaves speaks to timeless truths in his songs. "I'm not an innovator. I'm more of a keeper of the flame," he says.

"Songs are so accessible. You don't need an education to fully appreciate them, you don't need a lot of leisure time to spend on them, you don't need to learn the language of song. We seem to be born with it," Cleaves explains. "With no preparation at all, they can bring you to tears in a matter of seconds. I remember being three or four and getting a lump in my throat when I heard Hank Williams sing."

Now in his fifties, Cleaves admits that the songs don't always come easy. "I do become jaded," he says. "I wonder that, at this point in my career, I've had no real national success. No impact on the culture, as my heroes had. The music that I love just doesn't seem relevant to mainstream culture. And I have no interest in what mainstream culture offers."

"But those feelings are always quickly overcome by gratitude," he explains. "I'm not complaining about my life. I'm making a decent living as a musician - what could be better than that?"

'Ghost on the Car Radio' is 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."

Cleaves will hit the road this summer and fall in support of the album. For updated tour dates, visit slaidcleaves.com/tour

credits

released June 23, 2017

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Continental Record Services Netherlands

Continental Record Services represents (mostly North American) Americana and Blues artists in Europe. We handle distribution, PR and occasionally book tours for our artists.

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