Clay George

Essentially it's the voice.



A voice you recognize but can't place, singing about a place you recognize but can't face. At the core, Clay George writes about the ironies of being too sharp an observer in a world where people only see what they want to see. His voice was made for the car radio in another era. You tuned in while driving a lonely road at night, desperate for diversion. That's it, that's the voice! And then you never heard that song again.



But sometimes the only difference between a good song and a great song is the size of its audience. Here are some good songs that are destined to be great. Listen.



Who are your musical and songwriting heroes?

I'm more a fan of songs or even parts of songs than I am of individual musicians or songwriters. Truth be told, the music that really moves me the most has little to do with the singer/songwriter genre. Should I be saying that out loud? I secretly wish I were a classical pianist slash composer, that or an opera singer. As songwriters go, I'd be lying if I said I'd never listened to a bunch of Townes Van Zandt, Dylan, or Springsteen. But who hasn't?



When did you first start playing and what compelled you to start? I began playing piano when I was quite young, and my parents got me an old Wurlitzer to practice on. There was also an old Traynor amp and a microphone that my father had acquired from a friend who lived up the street. I spent a lot of time messing around in the basement with that stuff, and with my father's guitars, playing along to records and recording myself singing. I remember the guy up the street teaching me a song called “Rockin' Little Angel”, and telling me if I sang it he'd put me on “The Gong Show”. It wasn't until years later that I found out that Ray Smith was actually a Sun Records recording artist and a rockabilly legend.



You live in Victoria, Canada, but you spent a year sharpening your craft in Austin, Texas. What did you take away from that experience?

I lived there between 2004/2005. People have this weird notion of what Austin is because of it's musical history, but really it's just like Victoria; a college slash government town with a ton of musicians and artists in general. I mostly sat in the yard picking and writing. You can do that anywhere, it's just that in some places the weather is nicer.



What's your philosophy of songwriting?

I don't know that I have a philosophy. Most of the time I'm just trying to find the right words to reflect the sentiment of a melody.



Is there any sort of message you hope the listener takes from this album?

No. It's great to hear that someone feels some sort of connection with a certain song, but really it's up to them what they take away from it. I'm not pushing anything.



www.claygeorge.com