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Duke Bardwell, John Hartford, Beatles, Bob Dylan, Sam Bush, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, HUBBA HUBBA, Franko Washboard Jackson, Bill Garrett, Bill Monroe, Neil Young, Waylon Jennings, Jeff Buckley, Donnie Sundal, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Jeff Caldwell, Darell Scott, Ron Cliburn, Richard Pryor, Chuck Garvey, U2, Merle Travis, A.C.D.C., Clifford Brown, Ryan Adams, Dizzie Gillespie, Delbert McClinton, Aaron Wood, Jon Bonham, Jim Lauderdale, S.R.V., Louis Armstrong, Rev. Jeff Mosier, Gram Parsons, New Grass Revival, Emmy Lou Harris, Johnny Cash, Owen Saunders, Butch Hornsby, The Mamou Playboys, The Band, Derek and The Dominoes, and many moe.
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How Dread Clampitt Got Its Name
Balder Saunders was an engineering student at Georgia Tech, playing trumpet in a second
line band called Back Azimuth. Back azimuth is a way of navigating in the field by
steering by your wake. Looking back at where you have been. I think there's some Lewis
Carroll character in Jabberwocky who navigates that way, and of course a Plains Indian
contrary does everything backwards. You have to have a certain eidetic reasoning to
transpose the angles, but after woodshedding in the Ozarks Charlie Parker taught himself
to play any song in any key.
Saunders' father had a co-worker who went to Jamaica on vacation. When the man came
back, he told Saunders' father, who had a son who played bluegrass music-Balder's
brother, Owen-that they loved bluegrass in Jamaica. When his father told him that, Balder
thought of the name of a bluegrass fusion band, Dread Clampitt. After the character in the
popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies, with theme music by Lester Flatt and
Earl Scruggs, and the dreadlocks worn by Jimmy Cliff, Little Richard, and Taj Mahal. He
visualized a sort of eponymous persona for the bandleader of a group like that some day,
barefoot, in bib overalls, sitting in a plastic chaise longue next to a moonshine jug with a
corncob stopper in it, cooking fish, or deer meat, on a charcoal grill with a busted wheel,
wearing his hair in dreadlocks, a knee blown out of his overalls, a pair of evil, tontons
macoutes shades on, and picking a tune on a hand-made mandolin. But he didn't imagine,
then, that he would write the tunes, and play them for a living.
Dream your dream, then put the foundation under it.
Balder's uncle, legendary Santa Rosa Beach picker, singer, and songwriter Potter Brown,
died. Owen inherited his guitar and Balder inherited his car, a Chevrolet Caprice Classic.
Living the words of a popular Potter Brown number, "Life of Riley," Balder dropped out
of school, moved in with his common-law aunt-in-law, Potter's widow, Suzette
DeJarnette, helped her fix up her house, and started playing music around the Highway
30A Beaches of South Walton County Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA)
with Potter's old bandmates Duke Bardwell and Franko Washboard Jackson, plus his old
parking-lot-picker friends Mike Jones and Mike Kish, learning the ropes, developing his
chops, and paying his dues. Then Balder moved into a trailer in Grayton Beach, Kyle
Ogle moved in with him, they started playing together, rehearsing a mandolin-guitar duo
act, a progressive Homer and Jethro, writing songs, they dragged a few dead cars up in
the yard, salvaged a couple more rusted-out charcoal grills from rubbish heaps, wrote
some more original material, and the rest is history: Dread Clampitt was a band, with
regular gigs, a fixed street address, fans, groupies, critical respect, and broad appeal, to
young and old, native and seasonal visitor, relatives and strangers.
Copyright www.dreadclampitt.com
From Steve Masterson:
My name is Steve Masterson I put on a small music festival in North Alabama called The Acoustic Cafe. The shows are in my front yard way up in the woods; they are a labor of love. I am fifty two years old and have been actively pursuing live music since I was ten. From big arena rock shows, to smoky bars, to sitting in the dirt at small festivals or even being the only person listening to a couple of people jammin I have seen more live music than anyone I know.
In putting on a festival people are always sending me CDs to listen to. I put them in my player but most of them get the reject button with-in a few minutes, there is a lot of music out there; but not much that grabs me.
When I received a copy of Dread Clampitt’s first album I of course noticed the intricate art work on the cover. From the first four beats of the first song I was a Dread Clampitt fan. The songs were original, they have relevant understandable stories. Some were funny, some were pretty, they had drive, I mean a lot of drive. Their instrumental ability was awesome, their arrangements were clever. Not only do they have incredible song writing as well instrumental abilities but they have a secret weapon; they can sing. Yes I know everybody sings, but they can really sing. They have the most powerful harmony vocals of any band playing. I got on the phone and booked them for my next show.
I listened to that CD for months but had no contact with the band until I got to hear them live. I had heard they were playing at a festival near by and I went to see them. I introduced myself to them when I got there and followed them into a room where they were going to warm up. I was stunned. I was hearing magic. As much as I liked their album it was nothing compared to what I was hearing. I knew right then that I was listening to the best live band I had ever heard.
They played at my festival the next month and took the place by storm, just blowing everyone away. I now would never consider putting on a show without them. They are considered my house band. They were nice guys and invited me to come visit them at the beach whenever I wanted to.
I finally got a chance to take them up on the offer to visit their world. They welcomed me like I was long lost family; they put me up and fed me for a week. They let me follow them everywhere they went. Everyone they came in contact with was full of love. I decided that week that I was going to do everything with-in my power to help them make it as a band. I have now been affiliated with the band for a couple of years and I have seen them road weary and working on very little sleep. Even after a rough night and getting up early they still greet each other in the mornings with comforting words and positive thoughts. Two years ago their music was the best I had ever heard, it did not need to get any better, but it has. Every time I see them they have improved. They keep pushing the envelope musically. To call them a Jam Band would lump them with a lot of other groups, they are musically beyond any name for the type of music they play.
One of my great joys in life is to introduce people to good live music. It is a shame but most people have never heard up close, powerful, live in your face music. Recently I talked a young fan of Wide Spread Panic into going with me to see Dread. He experienced shock and aw. He thanked me several times through the evening and told me he had wasted a lot of time not ever going when I told him about them before. He could not believe the power and precision they produced.
The band is made up of Balder Saunders on mandolin. To say that he is a gifted musician would take away from the fact that he has worked long and hard mastering his craft. He is the one who gets the harmonies right and makes them practice the exact notes to sing that gives their vocals such power.
He was living alone and looking for a roommate to help share living expenses.
As a quick side note in all of this you truly must believe that this world runs magically or this entire story may have never taken place.
Kyle Ogle the guitar player had just moved back to town and was looking for a place to live, the magic started. Two extremely creative people living under the same roof and eating out of the same refrigerator are going to do one of two things. They will either not get along and ignore each other, or they will start to create. As far as the music world goes we are lucky they chose the latter. Both had the same desire, play music for a living. They started writing songs and playing out enough places to pay rent and keep food in the refrigerator. As their act developed and their fan base started to grow they started looking for a fiddle player.
Justin Lewis Price Rees was a young fiddle player who had moved here from Australia, he was looking for a band to play with. Justin was the three time Australian Bluegrass Fiddle Champion, he could play. A mutual friend introduced them; again that magic was at work. So Justin became the third person under that roof and eating out of that refrigerator. Although they all have their own places now the musical education and bonding they got may have never happened were it not for that low rent trailer in Grayton Beach, Florida.
They have now been joined by a musical machine named Kenny Oliverio on Bass. Kenny made his living for years in the bars around playing electric guitar and bass. He showed me his old guitar that he said he literally tore up by banging it against the walls and floors as he rocked the late night partiers. He had never played an upright till he got the call from Dread Clampitt. It is my opinion that no one, I mean no one, plays the upright bass better than Kenny. Instead of just being in the back ground it is truly one fourth of the music that gets played. Unless you have seen Dread Clampitt play live I dare say you have not seen a band that had a good upright bass player, it is that incredible.
I could ramble all day about this band. The love and positive feelings they generate to everyone they come in contact with seems to spread. It is not easy making a living playing music; it is not easy at all. These guys have their hearts & souls in what they do. Do yourself a favor look at their schedule and try to make it to one of their shows, it might change your life.
Management and Booking:
Kevin Grant
contact: dreadclampitt@mchsi.com
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