Cleaves’ stories take center stage

Slaid Cleaves

Wishbones

Philo Records

Every four years or so, Slaid Cleaves produces an album that raises the bar for every singer-songwriter who has ever carried a guitar onstage.

He cranks up the band in “Wishbones,” writing or co-writing 10 of the 11 tracks and leading a powerful ensemble that remains true to his folk roots but also breaks new sonic ground. Mr. Cleaves is to appear tonight in support of the new CD at Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington.

Mr. Cleaves relocated to Austin, Texas, from Maine in the early 1990s, and by 1992, he had won the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk competition. By 1996, he was signed by Philo/Rounder in Cambridge, Mass., and soon he released “No Angel Knows,” which earned him critical acclaim.

But it was his edgier “Broke Down” recording in 2000 that attracted a legion of new fans. Although Mr. Cleaves was touring outside Texas, you could hear the title track sung around just about every campfire in Kerrville that summer.

In “Wishbones,” Mr. Cleaves tips his hat to the de rigueur introspection expected of modern singer-songwriters with “Road Too Long,” in which he admonishes the wannabes to “think twice before you follow me,” and “Sinner’s Prayer,” about the facade of honest living a man can project while holding desperate secrets within.

Yet when Mr. Cleaves breaks free of his first-person perspective, his songwriting climbs to new levels as he explores life’s darker side.

In “Below,” he tells the haunting story of a village that was flooded by a dam project. “Quick as Dreams,” inspired by Laura Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit: An American Legend,” is the story of Tommy Luther’s last race and the death of his friend Sandy Graham after he was thrown from a horse in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “Borderline” is the tragic story of a man who migrates illegally from Mexico to Texas and back.

Rod Picott, who co-wrote “Sinner’s Prayer,” provides Mr. Cleaves with his sole cover on the disc: “Tiger Tom Dixon’s Blues,” yet another story song, this one dealing with the decline and fall of a prizefighter.

Backed on drums by Rick Richards and on bass and guitar by producer Gurf Morlix, Mr. Cleaves gets some help on background vocals in the title track by Eliza Gilkyson — on a song co-written with Texas songwriting legend Ray Wylie Hubbard. Billy Bright provides mandolin on two tracks.