And yes, there's that voice as reliable as a trusted friend, and gift for simple yet sturdy melodies. But what draws the listener to Cleaves is his gift for delivering real-life stories that ring so true, you can almost see the documentary movie scenes playing behind the song. Woody Guthrie wasn't writing about silly stuff. Well, I guess he did write some silly songs. It's real life.
Life is hard, man.
But people were more aware of their mortality back then. Jimmie Rodgers sang a song about TB, the disease he died from. What attracted me to that old stuff was the realness of it. And that's what I aspire to.