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SLAID CLEAVES Broke Down (Philo/Rounder) If you want 'cry in your beer songs' then this album is definitely for you. Opening Broke Down is the title track, this song is about Sherry who is tired of dishes in the sink and kids and leaves Billy for a pretty boy who ditches her asap. Oh it's so sad. Slaid sounds like a run down David Gates, yet he writes such great lyrics, take 'One Good Year'; "I gotta get outta here, just give me one good year". It's the sort of music we have grown accustomed to hearing from Lucinda Williams and early Sheryl Crow. 'Cold And Lonely' has the music quality that resonates & reflects Chris Isaac's earlier recordings; and 'Cold And Lonely' is about a family of children that died, and also of a lost wife. 'Breakfast In Hell' is a tale of forestry foreman Sandy Gray who gave his life trying to free a log jam on a stormy river and 'Lydia' is a gentle ballad about a husband and son lost in a coal mining disaster. A surprise addition on Broke Down is Woody Gutrie's 'This Morning I Am Born Again', which sounds remarkably positive. 'Key Chain' is a song about freedom, yes as the lyrics go "I lost my wife, I lost my home, quit my job...," yikes! I wonder if he still has his car!? On 'I Feel The Blues Moving In' Slaid shares beautiful harmonies with Laura Nadeau and Janek Siegele. Not the most cherry album, yet it is memorable and you will listen to it again and again. Sad songs are winners, take Tom Jones for example singing 'The Green Green Grass Of Home', a song about a guy who gets executed in the morning! Now that's sad!Gazz Click on album image to see larger album cover 
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