Member Since: 5/11/2006
Band Website: davidclifton.com
Band Members: The splendid musicians who play on 'Seeds of Hope and Love' are:
James Gregory, bass guitar and endless sense of humour.
Paul Evans, a thousand drums, percussion, and perfectly placed triangle.
Mark Edwards, Hammond Organ and undeclared genius. Julian Kindred added some groovesome loops to Pauls rhythms on 'I believe (it's true)'
David Clifton plays electric, acoustic, slide guitars, mandolin and mandola.
Influences: Okay.......influences. My biggest influence has to be my old friend Barry Groves' big sister. In fact I can blame almost everything on her!
When I was a teenager living in Germany, there were some good friends who my brother Chris and I used to hang around with (my other brother, Paul, was too young!). The school holidays were long and hot, and we were always going off on bicycle rides and getting into interesting scrapes. And the best thing of all was that our friend Barry Groves had a beautiful older sister, who we all fancied.
"What shall we do today?" ......"I know, let's all go round to Barry's house!"
Now being older than us, she was into some really cool music. One day when we were there, I heard this incredibly beautiful chiming jangly guitar sound from upstairs, followed by an amazing song. It turned out that the song was 'The Sounds of Silence' by Simon and Garfunkel. I had only recently left the cathedral choir in which I sang as a child, and I had not really heard much acoustic, folk and rock music. Early Fleetwoods, Nick Drake, The Kinks, Fotheringay, Dylan, The Byrds, The Doors, Leonard Cohen. Hearing all this music was like climbing to the top of a hill and looking across a vast landscape of wonderful shapes, colours and light to a horizon that I never knew existed. I remember thinking to myself that whatever it was making that jangly guitar noise on the beginning of Sounds of Silence, I had to buy one and learn to play it! So a big adventure began (the first band I played in aged seventeen was called...Iron Maiden!) and still continues. I am eternally grateful to the amazing musicians, artists and producers with whom I have the privilege of playing and working.
This is some of the music I love....XTC, Dukes of the Stratosphear (of course!), Fotheringay, Hem, Sonny Landreth, Gillian Welch, Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Radiohead, John Renbourne, Nickel Creek, Mumm Ra, Fairport Convention, Jane Siberry, Jose Gonzales, Bruce Cockburn, John Prine, Royksopp, Kate Rusby, Jars of Clay, Bert Jansch, The blind boys of Alabama, James Taylor, The Wallflowers, Leonard Cohen, John Martyn, Cornell Dupree, Ry Cooder, Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno, Michael Brook, Daniel Lanois, They Might Be Giants, Tom Petty, Alison Krauss, Savourna Stevenson, Bob Dylan, Sarah McLachlan, The Innocence Mission, R.E.M, The Strawbs, Jennifer Warnes, U2, Shawn Colvin, Simon and Garfunkel, Buddy and Julie Miller, T Bone Burnett, Joni Mitchell, Sigur Ros, Nick Drake, The Flaming Lips, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Jeff Buckley, Sandy Denny, Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, Julia Fordham and Tanita Tikaram (wonderful music to play and great fun to work with) Lewis Taylor, Jackie Mittoo, Pugwash, Perez Prado, Jan Garbarek....
......and as for classical music, Vivaldi, Handel, Elgar, Morten Lauridsen (especially Magnum Mysterium) Arvo Part, John Tavener, Messiaen, Mozart, Durufle, Faure, Rameau, Tallis, Byrd, Palestrina, William Boyce, Vaughan Williams, and top of the list, JS Bach who added the letters SDG on every manuscript (Soli Deo Gloria - to God alone the glory). He also wrote this: 'All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the recreation of the soul'.
......some favourite painters.....Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Turner, Hokusai, Picasso, William Blake, The Dartmouth Five, especially John Donaldson and Simon Drew....
.......and potters....Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Alan Caiger-Smith, Shoji Hamada, Michael Cardew, Taja.....
.......and poets...George Herbert, John Betjeman, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, TS Eliot, Roger McGough, Brian Patten, Philip Larkin, Wendy Cope, Stewart Henderson.....
Sounds Like: A glorious noise! Lots of acoustic and electric fun. In fact far too many guitars.
I hope that 'Seeds of Hope and Love' will soon be available for wider distribution through HMV (also for downloading), Fopp, Virgin and all the usual high street retail outlets. At present you can buy it through CMC distribution in Canada, and through Integrity-Provident in the UK and Ireland. If you want to order the CD online, please go to Integrity Music Europe or
Gold Records USA .
Record Label: Little Room Recordings
Type of Label: Indie