When Slaid Cleaves played Hill Country BBQ last fall, it was a homecoming for the D.C.-born Americana singer-songwriter. Cleaves, who earned his liberal arts degree from Tufts University in Boston, may have city ties. But he was raised in Maine, where he grew up listening to classic American artists such as Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits. While in college, he learned guitar, and later spent a summer in Ireland. He began busking on the streets in Cork, and that was the turning point when he decided to become a folksinger.
Cleaves launched his career in Portland, Maine, busking street corners, playing bars and forming the alt-country band Moxie Men. But in 1991 he moved to Austin, lured by milder winters, the South by Southwest music scene and a desire to hone his skills among the likes of Joe Ely and Lucinda Williams. A year later, Cleaves won the New Folk songwriting competition at Kerrville, an award previously earned by such artists as Nanci Griffith, Robert Earl Keen and Steve Earle.
In 1997, Cleaves released his first national album, "No Angel Knows" and he gained national prominence when he had an Americana charts hit with his 2000 album and song "Broke Down." Through tireless touring of the U.S., Canada, Britain and the Netherlands, Cleaves has built a loyal audience and developed his reputation for sincere and entertaining shows featuring his intimate songs and crisp guitar work. He's recorded four more CDs, including double-disc "Sorrow & Smoke/Live at The Horseshoe Lounge" (2011) and he's at work on another CD to be released this year.
"Sorrow & Smoke" fully conveys the spirit of an intimate yet jovial crowd, from clinking bottles to good-natured heckling, and it includes the self-deprecating humor that leavens the singer’s stories of people struggling to make sense of their lives. “There's a give and take, this sort of conversation I have with the audience,” Cleaves says. “That’s a big part of the show and I wanted to capture that as much as possible."
Ruut is a Finnish-born, Baltimore-based piano player and singer-songwriter. A product of a highly musical family and a southern gospel-influenced church, she also has been influenced by Tori Amos as well as jazz and Broadway. Her sound is highlighted by honest songwriting and emotionally captivating performances. Her full-length debut album was released in Finland in 2008 and in Japan in 2009. She has toured widely across the United States, opening for Derek Trucks Band, Delbert McClinton, Naked Blue and Dan Navarro.
