No Depression

I was sad to hear about the cessation of No Depression Magazine. Named after the Carter Family song covered by Uncle Tupelo on UT's album by the same name, it is my favorite music magazine.
The magazine was the leading source of of the alt-country/americana/roots rock movement. I was buying the magazine early on, and had a subscription for awhile. Most of the time, I bought it off the rack.
It was always fun for me, as I knew or had met many of the artists that graced the pages. Although I never received a review or a mention, I did run a few ads following the Just Another Day release in '97, and it brought me some fans.
Happily, No Depression will carry on as a webzine and publish a couple of books each year. Yes, I will be checking it out, but the mag will be missed.
Pic: Fred No Depression ad, 1997

Lyric Series: Alone

This series will be appearing on my myspace music site at www.myspace.com/fredclarkmusic. I am putting the first installment here to encourage you to visit that site and become my friend there. In the future, the lyric series will only appear on that site.

My new series will be individual blogs of lyrics from the first two albums with a little bit of background info. I will alternate albums and otherwise keep the order random.
First up: "Alone" from Just Another Day.

Background: I had played some bass with EV (1981-83), and with the impending breakup of that group, I bought a guitar and amp in March of '83. I basically learned to play barre chords and put together quick paced 3 and 4 chord songs with distortion. The few covers that I learned were basically '50's tunes which I sped up and used distortion on also. At the end of June, I debuted the Rockouts, one week after the last EV show. In July, I came up with the music for "Alone", which had a radically different, almost countryesque, no distortion sound. I basically had the lyrics for the chorus, and that was about it. I kept the tune under wraps, so to speak, because it didn't really fit with the other material. In '84, after Mike Gassmann joined the group, I approached him about helping with the lyrics, told him my ideas and he came up with just what I was looking for on the verses. I tweaked it a bit and we debuted it in the summer of '84. At that point we felt comfortable in moving the band in a different direction and it paid off, as it become a crowd favorite. It stood out from the other songs in our set.

Fast forward 10 years later when I started my solo career---"Alone" was the one song I carried over from the Rockouts era because it fit with the direction I was heading, although I almost didn't put it on the album because I basically wanted new material for it. In the end, I relented, and am glad I did, as it is still one of my favorites. If I had one thing to do over with this song production wise, I would have loved to put some strings---violin or cello, and possibly a haunting organ to it. I would love to hear somebody cover it in that manner. Anyway, here are the lyrics:

"Alone"

I wish that I could leave this town
where the sun don't shine and the rain keeps falling down on me
Ever since you left I don't know what at all or who I'm really supposed to be

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

Now I just don't know what to do
I'm hoping that somebody new will take your place
and I've been looking all around but I can't seem to rid myself of your smiling face

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

I'm so alone so alone

Copyright 1984/1996 Fred W Clark, Michael E Gassmann, Surfmonk Music/Rockout Records (ASCAP)

Yes, I am very proud of this song--it's simple but strong.
fc

Musical Timeline 16

This is rather lengthy but is the last installment of my Musical Timeline series on my myspace music site at www.myspace.com/fredclarkmusic.

After my move to Louisiana, I performed both in Louisiana and back home in Illinois/Missouri. Some highlights included performing for Clint Harding's show on KDHX in 2000 with 2 other singer/songwriters whose names escape me. That show was done in the KDHX studio. In Louisiana I performed at the Louisiana Music Factory, Cafe Reconcile, Destrehan Plantation, Borders Books and a few places in Baton Rouge. My main venue to perform was the Neutral Ground down on Daneel St. I made a television appearance on the Louisiana Jukebox show. That was good fun. Also appearing on the show that night was 95 year old piano player Al Boudreaux and jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and his band. I hung out with Al a little bit. He died a few years later. Eric Paulsen was a guest host that night and he is originally from St. Louis so that was really cool.
"Living In Dakin's Neighborhood" was sent to many college and public radio stations and received airplay in 18 countries. Thanks to the internet, I was able to make fans all over the world, and I had some DJ's who gave me alot of airplay and publicity, particularly in The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy.
"Roll River On" was released to American radio in early 2001 and received airplay in small and medium sized markets, mostly AM and smaller FM stations. I did radio interviews via telephone all over the country and The Netherlands. The song did pretty well on a couple of the small market charts, hitting 33 on one and I think about 77 on the other. Unfortunately, neither one was the Billboard chart, so the big time success didn't come.
My last show in St. Louis was in August of 2001 at the Focal Point in Maplewood. Also performing that day was Jan Marra and Ben Kaplan. The show was taped live for broadcast the following week on the Clint Harding Show on KDHX. Clint was really good to me over the years and I really appreciate that.
My last performance was in March of 2001 at the Neutral Ground. An asthma attack cut my performance about ten minutes short. Thankfully it appears my asthma has gone away. It has not been an issue for several years now.
After that I decided I needed a break. I had a growing family and there were some other things I wanted and needed to do. Me and Lauren now have 4 children-Colette, Bernadette, Bridget and Frederick, with another one on the way. I have another daughter, Stefanie, from my previous marriage.
My hiatus from the music business lasted longer than I originally anticipated. At one point I was so bogged down with things that I almost formally announced my retirement from music, but something stopped me from doing that.
I developed some other serious health issues, hypothyroidism and diabetes, but have them both under control. It was after being diagnosed with diabetes that I decided to work on my music again. After all, life is too short to not do something you enjoy doing.
Dear Fans, It may seem to you that at this point my progress towards the third album is a bit on the slow side, but please realize that my main responsibility is taking care of my family and health first. It will happen. I am planning on recording sometime in '09. I'm still not sure how live performances fit into the master plan, but I will be on stage again.
A funny thing has happened in recent weeks clearly out of the blue. I wrote a kids song. It just came to me one day. Then I wrote another. I performed them at Bernadette's birthday party a few weeks ago on May 9th, my first live performance of any kind since 2002! I now have a grand total of 5 original kids songs. Once I get to 10 I will go into the studio to record a kids album and I will soon be pursuing kid show gigs. This should be happening within the next few months.
I have a new youtube site I am setting up (fredclarktv). Once I get some things on there I will make an announcement.
I've mentioned many of my musician friends from the St. Louis area during this Musical Timeline series but have not mentioned any from New Orleans, so here it goes--some of the folks I played shows with or got to know during my brief performing days in New Orleans---Richard Carr (a St. Louisan and fellow SIU-Edwardsville alum who relocated back to St. Louis after Katrina), Peter Holsapple, Beth Patterson, Ron Keller, Brian Perry, Mike Miller, Susan Cowsill, Gina Forsyth, and Lauren's cousin Rachel Cook, just to name a few. Also thanks to Don Schouest, a fan who scored some gigs for me, (he lives in Ireland now-could be a great manager if he ever decided to go that route!), and Dylan James, who gave me lots of information regarding the local scene. Me and Pershing Wells have been messaging each other lately and I look forward to meeting him real soon.
So ends the Musical Timeline series as I begin a new one!
Thank you for all your support.
Fred

Dear Bookstore...

Dear Bookstore,
Last summer I purchased a book on your online site about President Zachary Taylor.
From this one purchase, you think you have me figured out, don't you? I bought one book about a president, so I must be interested in buying books about all the other presidents too. Franklin Pierce? Grover Cleveland? How about Warren Harding? If there's a book about a president, you have been so kind as to let me know about it via an email or as a recommendation just for me when I visit your website! It really is nice of you, but there is just one problem. You think you know me, but you don't. I am not a presidentphile.(not sure if presidentphile is a word, if not, it is now!) Yes, I have a degree in history, and yes, I love biographies, but any purchase of a book about a president will probably be few and far between. So now you may be wondering why I purchased a book on President Taylor. Well, you see, dear Bookstore, I am heavy into genealogy and family history, and Zach is a cousin of mine. That's why I bought that book. Now having told you a little something about myself, please don't recommend genealogy books to me. See, you may know what I have purchased from you, but you don't know what I already have, and I have everything I need. Thank you for your concern though.
Sincerely,
Fred