Most people who know me, know I’ve been a photographer and photojournalist my entire career…but back in 2009, thanks to a renewal of friendship with my childhood pal Janet Jameson (Rock Paper Scissors), I started photographing musicians and venues and loving the vibrant Kansas City music scene.
After an evening of photographing one such performance at Record Bar, back in 2012, I was kicking back with Dennis White of RPS after their performance when a beautiful young black woman took the center of the stage – quietly, unimposing, alone – and with with her whole soul, cut into the dark silence with a voice and lyrics that felt like a gale wind had blown through the front door. (I fumbled around for my cellphone settings and just hit record and prayed that something would work that would do some tiny iota of justice to her).
In that moment, I gained a reverence for the audacity and internally-driven joy and love of music possessed by those who get up on stage following a popular act where most of the house has left – and, in front of a dozen or fewer people – pour their hearts out like the house is full (all the greats have a story like this to tell…)
So, that night, in that song, this is what she had to say:
you take away from me
everything i once had
and it’s so hard to see
while i’m looking back
but never once in my mind
did i think i could find
a heart like yours
so unwilling to fly
crafting lies is your game
that i’m soon up against
giving rise to a crime
and your feigned innocence
but time goes
and i know
that i was never alone
in this long line of those
awaiting your end
find a way to bring me
back to my senses
we’ve passed the point
of where we could comprehend this
i’m just another way
for you to lie to their face
when you say
that you’ll never surrender
you take away from me
everything i once had
and it’s so hard to see
without looking back
but never once in my mind
did i think i could find
a heart like yours
so unwilling to fly
find a way to bring me
back to my senses
we’ve passed the point
of where we could comprehend this
i’m just another way
for you to lie to their face
when you say
that you’ll never surrender
turning back tiime
to a place that i
lost my soul
along this road
stealing moments
a glimpse in slow motion
until it all fades to unfocused
find a way to bring me
back to my senses
we’ve passed the point
of where we could comprehend this
i’m just another way
for you to lie to their face
when you say
that you’ll never surrender
Shortly thereafter, I learned more about her from her many youtube videos she had posted and in one set of videos was a project whereby she would write a song a day for 31 days. And she posted several of them, often within minutes of taking a few minutes to dream up the song. Her haunting lyrics seem to flow straight to her effortlessly as if some loose ethereal strand was left uncut when she entered this world.
The videos are rare glimpses into the raw, uncut version of the songwriter process – that rice paper thin plane of existence where artists go to channel with their muses…then come back to share with the rest of us mere mortals. In an age of digital control and the polished studio perfections, getting to see, hear and feel something real and authentic feels refreshing. And when up close in a live setting, for some it’s a theater vs. the movies experience.
Clemons has her own niche following and certainly she is not a pop genre artist but her fresh voice and pure lyrics will nonetheless carry the potential to spark open the emotions of those who hear her. This is what Clemons does best – by being herself and speaking from the heart, she helps all of us feel those connections.
Here and now, five years later, Clemons resides in Fort Worth but she hasn’t forgotten her Kansas City fan base (she attended K-State) and she brings a one night show this week at Knuckleheads.
Her promo includes the song Dirty Work, performed here:
Clemons is performing this Thursday, August 31, 2017 at 8 p.m. in the Carl Butler Lounge of Knuckleheads. Doors open at 7 p.m.
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