STEPHEN CLAIR

End of Summer Ushers in September Music
September 1, 2013

Stephen Clair strikes another chord in Beacon

By Sommer Hixson

Sadly, the summer season of live outdoor music concerts is drawing to a close. If you attended one recently in the area, chances are Beacon’s Local 845 made it happen. If you haven’t, there are still opportunities throughout September.

On Saturday, Sept. 7, Local 845 will present the fall edition of In The Pines at the University Settlement Camp on Route 9D. The lineup features five bands: Luray, Raquel Vidal and the Monday Men, The Vontons, The Loom, and the Jack Grace Band, plus the latest graduates of rock band boot camp.

On Sunday, Sept. 8, Local 845’s Beacon Music Factory will host an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. at their brand new, expanded location at 12 Hanna Lane. It’s also a big month for Stephen Clair, the man behind the curtain of both organizations, who is celebrating the release of his fifth album, Love Makes Us Weird, with a set of local performances.

Clair launched Local 845 in 2007, shortly after moving to Beacon with his family. A veteran musician and songwriter, he wanted to draw other musicians to the area and create an active hub in the Hudson Highlands. His early efforts included one-off concerts and shows he produced wherever possible, from the Howland Art Center to the parking lot of the Piggy Bank, which is now Dim Sum GoGo. The success of these early grassroots efforts led to the launch of Beacon Riverfest in 2010 and Rhythm on the Riverfront (with Scenic Hudson) in 2011. In The Pines started around the same time and is presented bi-annually.

On a rainy night last week, an enthusiastic live rendition of Bob Marley’s Jammin’ could be heard drifting across the parking lot of Beacon’s former Tallix complex. Inside what used to be a school for disabled children (the property was recently sold), a five-man ensemble was rehearsing for their performance at the upcoming In The Pines. Once satisfied with their reggae licks, they moved on to The Ramone’s Sheena is a Punk Rocker, followed by Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. These guys were signed up for a boot camp on memorable hits from 1977.

Clair has been organizing rock band camps for kids since 2009, first out of the University Settlement Camp and then, after launching Beacon Music Factory in 2011, in the basement of The First Presbyterian Church in Beacon. The school, which moved to its new location this past August, offers a wide range of curriculum taught by professional musicians and composers. Instruction in almost every genre from jazz to classical to choral, from keyboards to drums to banjo, are offered year-round to kids and adults.

All boot camp sessions, which last anywhere from eight to 12 weeks, culminate with a public performance. The concept was inspired by a teaching gig Clair had at the Gowanus Music School in Brooklyn, with a nod to the School of Rock franchise. The program has evolved to include adult sessions in which campers study and perform one seminal rock album from beginning to end, track for track. Recent shows have featured David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, The Clash’s London Calling and Television’s Marquee Moon.

“The experience of these records is an emotional thing for people,” said Clair. “I hope for that connection when choosing an album, but I also look for ones that have good, teachable stuff and offer interesting places to go. The camps really strike a chord with this community, but I’m hoping to broaden the school’s brand and reach out to a larger pool of potential students.”

In a recent email newsletter from Clair, he includes a thoughtful note about amateurism in which he says: “Long before there was ever a recording industry, music-making was a way of socializing, or being on a team. In the back forty, on the front porch, in the parlor, on a street corner, in church, in a pub. A hundred years ago, if you wanted to hear some music you got together with your peeps and you made some music.”

Upcoming sessions include The Pretenders’ debut album and The Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense. A classic country boot camp for adults and a teen rock camp are also on the fall schedule.

With such explosive growth all around, it’s surprising that Clair, who is by no means an amateur, had time this year to record his own album. Produced by Al Hemberger at The Loft in Bronxville, N.Y., Love Makes Us Weird features 10 new songs written by Clair, who plays guitar, with Cold Spring residents Todd Giudice and Jay Nicholas on drums and bass. The premiere of Clair’s first-ever music video and a live performance will be held on opening night of the Beacon Independent Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 13. His official hometown CD release party and performance will be at the new Towne Crier Café in Beacon on Saturday, Sept. 28.

“Local 845 has come to a new phase where it’s all working in tandem. People come to discover one piece of what we’re doing and learn about everything - The Paper, Philipstown.info

I've just fallen in love with some of the songs on this." - Rita Houston, Music Director

I've just fallen in love with some of the songs on this." - Rita Houston, Music Director

In a lot of ways, Stephen Clair is the kind of citified troubadour that the roots songwriting world needs these days - a writer who can celebrate his influences without trying to be them.
He shares James McMurtry's poetic gift for plain but literate lyrics, a certain tongue-in-cheekiness with Townes Van Zandt and the ability to spin a yarn like Greg Brown. But there's also a bit of the bohemian to him, a bit of the old NYC that Clair thankfully doesn't hide under the pretend cowpoke jargon that many of his contemporaries do. Instead, he allows the noise and the gray of New York to seep into the sun-drenched hominess of his songs.
He comes out of the gate strong on Under The Bed with the opener "Gone Ten Years," an ode to a grandfather that brings a stutter to the heart of even the crustiest music critic.
Throughout, Clair proves himself a strong and witty lyricist, and his startling vocal similarity to James McMurtry gives his phrasing a wryness that allows even the starkest of phrases a bit of perspective and light.

-- Clay Steakley - Performing Songwriter Magazine

In a lot of ways, Stephen Clair is the kind of citified troubadour that the roots songwriting world needs these days - a writer who can celebrate his influences without trying to be them.
He shares James McMurtry's poetic gift for plain but literate lyrics, a certain tongue-in-cheekiness with Townes Van Zandt and the ability to spin a yarn like Greg Brown. But there's also a bit of the bohemian to him, a bit of the old NYC that Clair thankfully doesn't hide under the pretend cowpoke jargon that many of his contemporaries do. Instead, he allows the noise and the gray of New York to seep into the sun-drenched hominess of his songs.
He comes out of the gate strong on Under The Bed with the opener "Gone Ten Years," an ode to a grandfather that brings a stutter to the heart of even the crustiest music critic.
Throughout, Clair proves himself a strong and witty lyricist, and his startling vocal similarity to James McMurtry gives his phrasing a wryness that allows even the starkest of phrases a bit of perspective and light.

-- Clay Steakley - Performing Songwriter Magazine

A masterful songwriter, Stephen Clair has the skills to write tunes that are both deeply personal, yet surprisingly universal. While many artists try to be impressive, Stephen keeps it simple. On his latest album, Under the Bed, his words do the talking, and the music compliments rather than overpowers the songs’ message. Stephen captures the idea of songwriter as storyteller; each song gives a glimpse into his life, and into our own. He has a way of using words to speak about common themes in different ways. Clair crafts insightful songs around ordinary things, like the moon. “As you pass by the window just cover your eyes/ because the moon wants your soul to go bump in the night” (“The Moon”) - The Celebrity Cafe

A masterful songwriter, Stephen Clair has the skills to write tunes that are both deeply personal, yet surprisingly universal. While many artists try to be impressive, Stephen keeps it simple. On his latest album, Under the Bed, his words do the talking, and the music compliments rather than overpowers the songs’ message. Stephen captures the idea of songwriter as storyteller; each song gives a glimpse into his life, and into our own. He has a way of using words to speak about common themes in different ways. Clair crafts insightful songs around ordinary things, like the moon. “As you pass by the window just cover your eyes/ because the moon wants your soul to go bump in the night” (“The Moon”) - The Celebrity Cafe

This east coast songsmith writes intelligent and poetic songs that have about them a certain fluidity that engages the listener. His songs don't depend on complex musical changes or other embellishments to the story; they depend on the storyline and the heart expressed in the story itself. His songs have a ring and sensibility of the east coast to them, as opposed to spaces and twang of the Texas songwriters, to hold him up to just one other group. They are tightly written songs and each is its own little vignette, which is straight and pure. They have an honesty that comes only from having the experiences firsthand, rather than looking at some situation he might have heard about, saying, "That's a great idea for a song," and inventing a story to fit the circumstance. It's the little touches in the songs make then real. In Gone Ten Years, the image of grandma going out and throwing nails in the street so he'd get a flat and they could meet, that is what makes it realistic. There is nothing that is groundbreaking musically here but there is more than an abundance of good songs that have that ring of authenticity. It's a disc that definitely seems to stay longer and longer in the disc player; a quiet gem that sneaks up on you.

- Bob Gottlieb
- Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange

This east coast songsmith writes intelligent and poetic songs that have about them a certain fluidity that engages the listener. His songs don't depend on complex musical changes or other embellishments to the story; they depend on the storyline and the heart expressed in the story itself. His songs have a ring and sensibility of the east coast to them, as opposed to spaces and twang of the Texas songwriters, to hold him up to just one other group. They are tightly written songs and each is its own little vignette, which is straight and pure. They have an honesty that comes only from having the experiences firsthand, rather than looking at some situation he might have heard about, saying, "That's a great idea for a song," and inventing a story to fit the circumstance. It's the little touches in the songs make then real. In Gone Ten Years, the image of grandma going out and throwing nails in the street so he'd get a flat and they could meet, that is what makes it realistic. There is nothing that is groundbreaking musically here but there is more than an abundance of good songs that have that ring of authenticity. It's a disc that definitely seems to stay longer and longer in the disc player; a quiet gem that sneaks up on you.

- Bob Gottlieb
- Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange

You rarely,as I mention in the editorial, hear an entire album being played on the radio, but you could hear all 11 tracks of this one if you tuned into, ah well, that's the catch, you'd have to tune into 11 different stations. Which is a pretty neat compliment when you think about it—11 different DJs came to completely different conclusions about which was the best, most playworthy number, so between them they said the whole thing was woorthwhile. From upstate NY, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter made some local noise, thanks to support by WFUV, with his 2003 debut Little Radio, but Clair, as Jim Beal Jr. remarks, "plays the kind of turbo-folk that's usually associated with the heartland." Something about his voice, laconic phrasing and dry wit reminds me of James McMurtry, for whom he's opened, and like McMurtry he's a mean hand with acoustic and electric guitars, though he's been unlearning a lot of technique since hearing that Woody Guthrie thought that using any more than three chords was just showing off.
- John Conquest - 3rd Coast Music

You rarely,as I mention in the editorial, hear an entire album being played on the radio, but you could hear all 11 tracks of this one if you tuned into, ah well, that's the catch, you'd have to tune into 11 different stations. Which is a pretty neat compliment when you think about it—11 different DJs came to completely different conclusions about which was the best, most playworthy number, so between them they said the whole thing was woorthwhile. From upstate NY, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter made some local noise, thanks to support by WFUV, with his 2003 debut Little Radio, but Clair, as Jim Beal Jr. remarks, "plays the kind of turbo-folk that's usually associated with the heartland." Something about his voice, laconic phrasing and dry wit reminds me of James McMurtry, for whom he's opened, and like McMurtry he's a mean hand with acoustic and electric guitars, though he's been unlearning a lot of technique since hearing that Woody Guthrie thought that using any more than three chords was just showing off.
- John Conquest - 3rd Coast Music

This guy who lives in Brooklyn sounds an awful lot like Austin-based James McMurtry…go figure! Or more to the point, go listen. Clair’s songs are often sardonically droll as they get down to business with a catchy hook and a clever phrase. The drawling vocals are perfectly backed by guitar playing that’s liberated by the excellent rhythm section. It’s literate and fun with a funky Americana sound.

- Michael Devlin - Music Matters

This guy who lives in Brooklyn sounds an awful lot like Austin-based James McMurtry…go figure! Or more to the point, go listen. Clair’s songs are often sardonically droll as they get down to business with a catchy hook and a clever phrase. The drawling vocals are perfectly backed by guitar playing that’s liberated by the excellent rhythm section. It’s literate and fun with a funky Americana sound.

- Michael Devlin - Music Matters

"It takes balls, literally and figuratively, to sing so knowingly about a vasectomy. But in the swaggering, amped-up title track to Love Makes Us Weird, Stephen Clair does just that, turning a four-syllable word into a tight rhyme with the line "Who are we?" The 10 tracks of this unabashed rock album provide several open-ended answers to that question, shining light on folks walking with open arms into the second acts of their lives. Clair, a one-time childless, wayfaring troubadour, finds fascination in the domesticity that's been the focus of his life since his last CD in 2008. His sharp, unwavering eye and well-honed rock-poet phrasing render the vicissitudes of adulthood—marital strife, urban fear, and dad lust—as song-worthy indeed.

The epic "I Like the Way We Fight," in particular, offers this self-aware gem: "You can get a lot of songs out of being lousy, when it comes to messing up those loving opportunities." It takes lyrical chops to make resisting temptation interesting. Similarly, "At the Foot of the Mountain" reveals the wonder and power of morning light on human-defaced nature, offering hope in a punky guise. Bassist Jay Nicholas and drummer-vocalist Todd Giudice bring equal parts sensitivity and raw power to Clair's electric riffage, while producer Al Hemberger expertly balances the rocking with Clair's distinctive wordsmithery and conversational delivery. Clair rides it all with infectious gusto, brightening the corners of his life, and ours." —Robert Burke Warren, Chronogram Magazine - Chronogram Magazine