Austin on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend erupted in wildfires spawned by the low humidity, 35 mph winds, and a tinderbox of drought stricken foliage. In the evening there were ten fires reported; Bastrop, Pflugerville, Spicewood, Cedar Parl. There are homes of people we love in these areas, and there are reports of people being evacuated. In Austin proper, the night sky was filled with rheumy smoke clouds hanging in the air - the scent of burning wood. It has been a mean season here, and we are praying for cooler temperatures, a break in the high pressure system that has engulfed the area for the last six months, and especially, we are praying for rain. Texas is not alone in making prayers. In other parts of the country people are praying for other things. Scarcity of a different sort can produce a firestorm of another kind.
Music Fog brings you a new Slaid Cleaves video today. It is a song he co-wrote with Rod Picott, and one that Rod has released but Slaid has not. Slaid does have a new album out today, called Sorrow and Smoke: Live At The Horseshoe Lounge – which is a line from his song “Down at The Horseshoe Lounge.” Slaid is from Maine, and it took him a while to muster up his courage to even walk in this legendary Austin dive bar. His is an important voice, and not to dwell on the theme of Labor Day, but this song chronicles lost employment. To be healthy, to get America back on its feet, we need to manufacture again. We filmed Slaid Cleaves at Cherokee Creek Music Festival in May. This song is not on his new live double album, in fact, Slaid has not released it yet. We commemorate the moment anyway with “Rust Belt Fields.”
-Jessie Scott
