Slaid Cleaves is a household name in Texas. As Joseph Hudak of Rolling Stone puts it, he’s “a master storyteller, one influenced not by the shine of pop-culture but by the dirt of real life.” Slaid first began performing as a solo artist in Cork, Ireland, when he was in college. Fresh from a breakup, he learned “a song a day, for a month,” cutting his teeth in the busking scene there.

Hailing from Maine originally, where he’d been in a high school garage band with Rod Picott, a childhood friend, he migrated to Portland, Maine, and eventually down to the Austin area, where he’s been since the early 90’s with his wife Karen. Pretty much immediately after arriving in Austin, Slaid made a name for himself in the scene with a win at the Kerrville New Folk songwriting contest.

In the years since, he’s released fourteen critically acclaimed and beloved albums and EPs, including his latest, Ghost on the Car Radio (2017). 2022 finds Slaid recording his first album in five years and getting back on the road, starting with a West Coast tour in the spring.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 17, “The Squire of Gothos." Topics include: Slaid’s connection with Ireland, adventures in busking, being the one American in Ireland in the midst of an American national tragedy, the Moxie Men, Slaid’s Texodus with Karen to “heaven with a Texas zip code,” adventures in pharmaceutical drug testing or, how young folksingers afford that Austin lifestyle, Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk contest, middle names, astronomy camp, coffee on the bridge, Venita Wolf, teasing between Bones and Spock, the non-main crew in this episode that have actual names and cultural backgrounds and that don’t get killed off, Kirk’s confidence, Trelane, a supposedly advanced lifeform who can’t think past the superficial distinctions between human beings, Trelane’s love of things that he doesn’t really understand and can’t really replicate, immaturity as something dangerous that leads to bad outcomes, dystheism in Star Trek, power not necessarily equaling superiority or benevolence, “I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose,” why creative risks are worth taking, even when the general public doesn’t get it right away, Grace still can’t believe that Slaid wanted to be on this podcast, the starlight we see is from stars that are very far away and that died long ago, Trelane’s rearranging of matter as an early example of Holodeck technology, Trelane as a precursor to Q in Next Generation, Star Trek’s political leanings and the questions it asks, “The Omega Glory,” alternate historical timelines, Trelane as a god of war and also a naughty little boy, normal kid behavior vs budding sociopath, Trelane’s parents, Kirk’s anachronistic references, Patreon, autocrats, the world we’re leaving to the next generation, Leonard Nimoy’s Jewish-Ukrainian heritage, Ukraine’s complicated past and present and history with bullies and Russia invading Ukraine the week this episode was recorded.