J.M. Clifford

New York based singer-songwriter and bluegrass musician J.M. Clifford was coping with the recent death of a parent and a divorce when the global pandemic hit. Quarantined in his Brooklyn apartment, On a Saturday Night, a record about loss, acceptance and salvation, was born.

Though Clifford played in various bands in college and after, he put aspirations of a touring career on the shelf. He became a music teacher at an inner city elementary school and shared his passion for creativity and songwriting with his students. After his mom passed away and his marriage ended, Clifford fell into a depression. “I started dozens of songs, just trying to process what I’d been through, but I couldn’t finish anything. So I went on different medications, got into therapy, researched Buddhism and meditated, sometimes for hours a day.“

Once the fog began to lift, new ideas came quickly. After going through old demos to reignite his love for songwriting, Clifford came across an unfinished song called “Kick the Drum.” The lyrics spoke of the joys of making music with friends and raising a glass as a way of dispensing with hard times, if only for the evening. It was in part a love song for the Brooklyn bluegrass community Clifford found at its spiritual headquarters, Sunnys Bar, located on the outskirts of Red Hook. “I wandered into the back room of this old bar on a Saturday night and was blown away by the incredible scene there. The line between the audience and the performers blurred into one messy, glorious wash of sound.”

Clifford spent countless hours digging into the repertoire, pouring over recordings by Norman Blake, Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. Soon he was hosting his own jams. From there, he took his new found love of bluegrass and started teaching the next generation of bluegrassers at The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. By July of 2020, Clifford had enough material for a record.

On A Saturday Night was recorded at The Bunker Studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Masked up and sanitized, the bluegrass community that lifted Clifford back up on his feet was now helping him put down roots in the genre that he credits with helping him through some very dark times. Co-Produced by Clifford, Ron Pope, and Nicole Cosme, the tracks range from traditional bluegrass romps to delicate and sparse ballads with introspective lyrics. The songs address his personal struggles head on, eventually finding some much needed closure and acceptance.

It wasn’t the first time music was Clifford’s saving grace. “As a kid I was diagnosed with ADD, OCD and a handful of other acronyms. I had few friends and did terribly in school.” When he was nine years old, Clifford fell in love with Guns N’ Roses and started playing the drums. Music became an outlet and a way of connecting with other like minded people. Clifford’s tastes changed as songwriting became his passion. He absorbed soul, folk, and jazz and released a debut record with songs about love, lust, God and existential dread.

When his mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, Clifford found himself leaning on music once again. “After my mom was diagnosed, she worked as a nurse in a hospice facility. That just blew me away. She was in a lot of pain and dealt with it by easing the suffering of other people. She also encouraged me to use my music in more explicitly therapeutic settings.” In 2018 Clifford started volunteering with Musicians On Call, a program that brought live music to hospital patients. “Of all the musical experiences I’ve had, nothing has compared to what I’ve shared with people in their most vulnerable moments. I left every volunteer session feeling this incredible awe at the ability of music to bring healing to people.”

For all of the bad the pandemic brought, it allowed Clifford to start processing painful emotions and memories, distilling them into songs infused with the rhythms and unapologetic vulnerability of bluegrass and old folk songs. Everything came full-circle: things had to fall apart before they could be rebuilt. On a Saturday Night will be released in August 2021.