The Story of Claire Small
Inspiration
Maybe it was when Johnny Cash visited her fourth grade music class to play a couple of tunes on the acoustic guitar that ignited something inside Claire Small. From a very early age Claire had shown not only an interest in playing instruments and writing songs, but also in performing her compositions in front of an audience. So Johnny’s intimate concert affirmed what she knew to be true about herself—that she wanted to spend her life as a singer, songwriter, and musician.
breathing out the music of the angels
Growing up in Nashville she spent part of her summers with her father downtown where it was impossible to ignore the sweet sounds of pedal steel or bluegrass floating out the open doors of honkytonks on Lower Broadway. Though surrounded by country music, Claire was also drawn to her parents’ musical tastes such as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Carol King, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. At nine years old, the first songs her father taught her to play on the guitar were Janis Joplin’s version of “Bobby McGee” and Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction”. Another more subtle influence at the time was the music sung and played at the Jewish Temple she attended. From her birth Claire was exposed to the ancient chants and minor-scaled prayers that make up part of the services. She would later become a member of the Temple choir and sing during the High Holy Days.
Beginning
Recording the songs that she wrote were just as important to Claire as writing them. Her very first studio experience was when she sang “Somewhere over the Rainbow” at the famous tourist destination of Barbara Mandrell’s recording studio on Music Row when she was only six. At eleven, she recorded her first original composition at her school’s summer camp called “One Wish”, a simple ballad asking for no more pollution, an end to homelessness, and peace on earth. As Claire began to discover her own musical preferences, she found herself listening to the works of The Doors, PJ Harvey and early Smashing Pumpkins. The songs she then started to write were edgier and more emotionally charged. In the eighth grade she made her first compilation titled “Bubble Joy” which had been recorded and duplicated on a karaoke machine in her bedroom and then sold for $3 at school.
wowing a small crowd with technique far beyond her years
A few years and about thirty songs later, encouraged by parents and teachers Claire responded to an ad from a new local music venue needing regular acts. At the audition her singing and writing style caught the eye of honky-tonker Greg Garing. Though she was only fifteen years old, Garing took her under his wing and made her a part of the mid- 1990’s Lower Broadway revival that included acts such as BR-549, Paul Burch, and Lucinda Williams. In both ’95 and ’96 she was the youngest artist to play at the Nashville Extravaganza “breathing out the music of the angels”, and “wowing a small crowd with technique far beyond her years” as reported by the Nashville Scene.Through the remainder of high school, Claire continued to play out at local festivals and clubs, but only minimally recording on 8-tracks or live at shows. In the summer between her sophomore and junior years Claire went on a five-week trip to Spain to solidify her language education and discovered the rich musical heritage the Spanish culture had to offer. This in turn led her to find artists such as Tito Puente, Gil Gilberto, Cesaria Evora, and Ibrahim Ferrar. After graduating, she moved out to New Mexico and then to Boulder, CO where regular gigs proved to gain a new interested audience. It was out west where Claire rediscovered and learned to appreciate her southern roots, including the early music of blues musicians Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and Mississippi John Hurt, thus deciding to return to Nashville and record a long-overdue album.
Recording
In the spring of 2004, Bloodshot Recording artist and past acquaintance Paul Burch produced and recorded her first EP Cantilever. This 5-song work featured Claire on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Paul on upright bass, electric guitar, and drums, all done in the upstairs recording studio at Paul’s house using an old reel-to-reel 8 track. It was a necessary and useful tool, but Claire knew she needed to go a step further. Later that fall when she met fellow band mates Hans Holzen and Kyle Kegerreis everything fell into place. Hans and Kyle added insightful accompaniment to Claire’s music, and allowed her to play bigger clubs around Nashville. They also encouraged her to record a full-length record and introduced her to local underground producer Joe McMahan.
Ledger is the result of this collaboration and showcases 10 of Claire’s songs with distinct personalities and musical styles. The album was recorded at Joe’s home studio on 2” tape in a very grassroots, low budget manner but succeeded in keeping the feeling of the musicians all playing together in one room. Special guest appearances by local talents such as string-maestro Chris Carmichael, percussionists Dann Sherrill and Brian Owings, singer Jennifer Niceley, Lambchop’s drummer Sam Baker, and Calexico’s pedal steel man Paul Niehaus pepper the record with surprises at every melodic twist and turn. Claire’s dynamic acoustic guitar, Kyle’s upright bass, and Hans’ hollow-body electric guitar stay at the core of the tracks and are driven with steady drums and Brazilian percussion, and colored with Joe’s improvisations on the Hammond organ, lap steel, various guitars, and omnichord. Above all this soars a voice that reaches through and grabs the listener, taking them to the moment in which the song was conceived, and telling of the stories and influential moments that have been Claire’s life up to this point. Some scenes are set to a more acoustic pop soundtrack, while others draw on bossa nova, klezmer and gypsy melodies. Over all, Ledger brings a new, non-traditional perspective to americana music and introduces Claire Small to the rest of the music world.