CD Review

Slaid Cleaves
Broke Down
(Rounder)

I keep wanting to like Slaid Cleaves - ever since his last album. The songs on this collection are all competently written, well-played, and Cleaves combines the requisite manly grit with a disarming boyish charm. But something doesn't wash and I can't quite put my finger on it. And if you're about to quibble about one of folk's new darlings, you'd better know why. I listen to the songs about his (or his characters') hard life and find myself strangely unmoved. It's like when those investigative journalists go undercover as homeless people and then write about their experiences. They are always, somehow, just visiting that world instead of being a part of it. They can't help finding novelty or poignancy in details that their subjects simply take for granted. There's a kind of awkward, forced quality here, as if Cleaves is trying to create ruggedness with his songwriting craft - sort of like the line from "One Good Year," which might serve as the album's motto:

"Grace ain't so easily found."