Ants on the Melon
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Tuesday night I drove up to San Marcos to see Slaid Cleaves perform at Cheatham Street Warehouse.

It had almost been a year since I last saw Slaid when he performed at Floore’s Country Store. The most memorable thing about that show was his cover of Don Walser‘s “Rolling Stone of Texas.” So when I found out that Slaid was returning from his tour and would be playing at Cheatham Street, I had to check it out.

This was my first trip to Cheatham Street Warehouse, and although I was willing to drive that far to see Slaid, I thought the $12.50 cover was a bit much for a Tuesday night show.

When I got there Graham Weber was on stage and there was already a nice little crowd. I had seen Graham’s name on music calendars, but had never heard him perform. He sang some nice songs that he had written, although I would probably blush if I had to even read the lyrics to some of them (like the one he wrote for his wife on their anniversary, very nice though ). I particularly enjoyed the speed-singing songs that he did. (Graham: come on, get that website going!)

After Graham finished up there was about a 10 minute break before Slaid took the stage with Michael O’Connor and Ivan Brown. They opened up with “Drinkin’ Days” and “Horseshoe Lounge” before Slaid promised to play some new material. He mentioned that recently he had been playing songs that his friends had written, and at that point they played a song by Michael. I wish I could remember the name of it because it was excellent. After several more songs they played “Horses” and as Slaid began yodeling I remembered his Don Walser cover at Floore’s, and I thought about requesting that they play “Rolling Stone of Texas.”

As “Horses” came to an end a train passed by and they joked about playing a “train song.” Then Slaid started telling a story about performing songs by his friends, and he mentioned Don Walser. At this point I knew he was going to do it, but I was so caught up in the story that I forgot to pull out my camera in time. However, I was able to start recording about 10 seconds into the performance, before the singing started. It’s not high quality, but here’s 2 minutes and 48 seconds of Slaid, Michael and Ivan performing Don Walser’s classic:

• Slaid Cleaves – Rolling Stone of Texas (52MB zipped movie)

After they finished “Rolling Stone of Texas” they decided it was time for a break. By this time it was almost 11pm and I had close to an hour drive ahead of me, so I decided to head home.

It was great to see Slaid and the gang perform again, I had almost forgotten how terrific their music sounds when it is live. According to his website, there will be no shows from January through mid-April, so you may want to check out one of his shows soon. Sunday afternoon shows at Gruene Hall are my favorites, so I am definitely planning to be at his show there on December 18.