Andrea Van Cleef // Greetings From Slaughter Creek (Recorded Live in Kyle,Texas,USA) // Album Review

Andrea Van Cleef’ is back with Rock ‘N’ Load, and this time in the format of a live recording from the good ol’ US of A. We caught up with Andrea more recently with their last recording ‘Horse Latitudes’ from 2024, which was a mesmerising album that brought Andrea to my attention. Now Andrea captured raw, in the flesh, doing what he does best, captivating audiences in a room into silence.

We get 11 tracks of glorious dark Americana that hit hard. Andrea’s raspy voice against the haunting lap steel guitar and visceral sound of the acoustic is a joy to experience. It pulls you in with nowhere to go, and you just have to let yourself absorb each track. The one thing that catches me off guard each time is when Andrea introduces each song, and you hear his Italian accent, you would never know as he sings that English is not his first language. Mighty impressive as he translates his songs into a fluid and captivating performance that allows you to focus purely on the songwriting.

The set is carefully curated to take the audience on a journey through Andrea’s various musical flavours, from the darker, more emotive side of his storytelling to uplifting, joyful tunes that get the feet tapping. The set showcases Andrea and the band’s versatility, from the depths of emotive Americana to easy-on-the-ear melodic numbers like ‘Thing’ that feel a lifetime away from the angst that Andrea can pull on at will. I think the great thing about hearing an artist such as Andrea is that it opens up your world to a musical vocabulary you don’t always involve yourself in, I would certainly have been too narrow-minded in my youth as to the music I would dare expose myself to, today after finally putting on my big pants and accepting the greatest of music comes in all forms and genres can turly appreciate any genre if it does well. Andrea does what he does very well, you can tell it is a life well lived, the years and miles put into his craft ooze from his very pores. As do that of the accompanying musicians, the cream always rises to the top, and they tend to hang out together and make the most beautiful music.

‘Greetings From Slaughter Creek’ is a testament to the artistry of Andrea Van Cleef, a live album of real quality that any Americana fan can appreciate. Thankfully the world is waking up to the magic of Americana, Country and real life singer-songwriters again, I guess it is a backlash to the absolute crap massive corporation’s have force fed us via the unrealistic reality tv shows that have decimated the music industry over the last few decades, once again the audience has spoken and they want honest, ethereal musicians that resonate, that capture the imagination and can translate what the average guy and doll feel on their daily grind, that is what you get here, pure honest songwriting that is worth investing your time and money should you wish in to help support Artists such as Andrea as the next threat of AI music is very, very real and present today.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.