...Trail of Dead, Air, Beastie Boys, Beck, Besnard Lakes, Beta Band, Billy Joel, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Black Mountain, Boston, Breakbeat Era, Bruce, Calexico, Cass (Mama and McCombs), Cheap Trick, Colin Blunstone and/or Zombies, Cure, Dead Can Dance, DM, Donovan, Doors, D.W. Holiday, Echo and the Bunnymen, Electric Prunes, Elvis (both), EBTG, Flaming Lips, the Mac, Galaxie 500, Genesis (Gabriel era), George Michael (pre bathroom), George Harrison, David Gilmore, Good Citizenship Award, Grandaddy, Heart, Housemartins, Howard Jones, Iggy, Buckley, Kelley Stoltz, Kinks, Le Tigre, ZEP, Cohen, Arthur Lee and Love, Low, Luna, Magnetic Fields, Manu Chao, Mark Kozelek and Red House Painters, Marvin, Mazzy, Mercury Rev, Miles, MGMT, Morphine, Neil, Nick, Nirvana, Pavement, Pedro, Pink, Pixies, Polvo, Primal Scream, Queen, Radar Bros., Radiohead, Robyn Hitchcock, Art Garfunkel, Small Faces, Smiths and Morrissey, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Super Furry Animals, Stereolab, Spoon, Sugarcubes and Bjork, Swervedriver, Talking Heads, Thee More Shallows, The New Slave, Tom Petty,Thompson Twins, Tortoise, Travis, Velvet Underground, XTC, Yes, Yo La Tengo
Craig M Clarke is an enigma. You cannot take his lyrics and music at face value. First you must search inside yourself to see if you feel the same way. His music has always been about his feelings. His songs do have a spiritual tone to them regardless of any particular religious view. Craig is a Christian but does not discriminate against anyone with true love in their hearts. For the most part he is singing about progress, deep change as he grows older and begins to find out what really matters most in his life. It’s a reflective look back at past choices (even poor ones) and starting to build upon those choices for a better future. The songs are about an IDEA, an idea that when we all wake up today, we can start constructing a better tomorrow. The words sung by him have bigger meaning for him and hopefully you also. Craig feels that once you strip away everything you have ever known about yourself and begin to reach inside, you will discover your true calling. Some subjects of his songs might at first glance seem to have a darker tone to them but think about this: some of the most beautiful thing ever grown on this planet was fertilized and nurtured with compost. Bad stuff happens but once you understand that whatever happens in your life good or bad you are in complete control of your life then you can right now start to plant inside your heart seeds of love and hope, a beautiful garden of dreams and faith that is all based upon what you have learned from your past mistakes but also your own ultimate glories. It’s about having no walls only bridges. Craig M Clarke’s music is a blend of old world acoustic and new world drive. It’s about raw emotions with technical support. The vocals are real and everyday. The lyrics are deep and dark like traveling into a cave and coming out into a wondrous undiscovered cove. Negative becomes positive. Good always conquers evil. The message is one of realizing that you are here on earth right now and that what you do is who you are but what you think is who you will become. As was stated in the beginning of this you cannot take his words or music at face value well that is not really true because once you get it, Once you realize what he is trying to say to you….well then you can only take it at face value. Craig M Clarke is an enigma
