Come see Stephen Clair live at The Gatehouse! Performing Songwriter calls him “the kind of citified troubadour that the roots songwriting world needs these days.”
Stephen Clair's grandfather was always singing from behind the wheel while occasionally opening the car door to spit. It was Grandpap who played young Stephen a Johnny Cash record when he was five years old, and that's everything Stephen remembers from his youth. Best known for his wry humor and guitar stylings, the Beacon, NY musician has been a fixture on the Americana, alt-country, and dorky independent rock scene since his 1997 debut, Altoona Hotel, named for the town his grandfather called home.
He's released many more albums over the years and toured and done all the things, experiencing all the near misses of life in the biz. Critics and his family love him first. Everyone else has come around in their own sweet time.
Rawboned, his latest effort, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, features only Clair and a guitar, except when it's Clair and a rickety piano. The songs are miniature stories, the essence of emotion, and the arrangements and performances fit accordingly. "Every note, every part — including the air around it — is intentional," says Clair. "I recorded it alone, in a room, over months, guitar in my lap, mousing with one hand, groping through the microphones surrounding me. I recorded take after take of each song. What you hear are complete, intact performances of each song. No punching in, no edits, no cutting and pasting. Each track on the record is a complete performance."
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