Cleveland’s Cautious Clay was just named WXPN’s Artist To Watch for the month of November, and at today’s Free At Noon concert he showed the room why: he’s an artist with a husky, commanding voice and sublime storytelling skills in vein of Ahi and Citizen Cope.
Joined by guitarist Chris Kyle, Clay’s set glided from the catchy acoustic “Dying In The Subtlety” into “Roots,” a pensive acoustic bop about making a healthy break and cleaning house in life. The music and the message were captivating enough, and then Clay punctuated the song with a soaring and hopeful flute solo.
“Camp Anonymous” from Cautious Clay’s forthcoming Thin Ice on the Cake EP was a very poppy, almost in Taylor Swift way: an earworm with a rhythmic vocal cadence, it talking about navigating missed connection: “Misunderstood, I feel seen and not heard, the timing’s no good.” It intertwined smoothly with “Joshua Tree” from his first project Blood Type, a song about hesitance around love and intimacy.