Slaid Cleaves

Slaid Cleaves returns to the Rubin after three sold out performances in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Called “one of the finest songwriters from Texas” by the New York Times, he phrases like a grifter trying to croon his low-down past away. Slaid has a reputation for sincere and intimate live performances. His song “Broke Down,” written with childhood pal Rod Picott, won Best Song of the Year at the Austin Music Awards. Twenty years into his career, the celebrated songwriter’s most recent album Still Fighting the War spotlights an artist in peak form. Cleaves’ seamless new collection delivers vivid snapshots as wildly cinematic as they are carefully chiseled.