Slaid Cleaves

Slaid Cleaves returns to the Rubin Museum after his sold-out concerts in 2009 and 2011. The New York Times has called him “one of the finest songwriters from Texas.” He phrases like a grifter trying to croon his low-down past away, and writes like he knows he never will. 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. And now, 20 years after his Southwest migration from Maine to Texas, he’s releasing his first live album — a double disc, no less, titled Sorrow & Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, on Music Road Records.