On stage at Prescott Park festival July 26 Americana master Slaid Cleaves returns home to perform...

Article Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008 Slaid Cleaves grew up in Maine and lived and worked on the Seacoast. The road from Portland, Maine, where he was raised, to Austin, Texas, where his creativity was honed, has been a long one for Slaid Cleaves. But it seems to have been the perfect distance to transform this intriguing singer-songwriter, who travels in and out of the boundaries of rock, folk and country, into the acclaimed artist that he has become. That transformation included several months or so living in Dover, where he took his music to whomever would listen on the Seacoast when he was not working temp jobs at Davidson Rubber or reading meters for the electric company. "It was a pretty bare-bones, searching time for me," he recalled of his early Seacoast residency. "I was just learning how to write and accompany... [read full story]