Month: July 2026

You can listen to me read this post on Soundcloud or Youtube, or as Bliss and Drumming wherever you get your podcasts.

On we go, back in time, to a song I wrote on my first album, Conversation with Francis Bakin from 2008, “River Now.” Gretchen plays guitar here, I’m playing the drums and singing, Rob Preston is on bass. These are some favorite lyrics, and at the time it felt to me as if the vocals weren’t strong, but now I can hear what I was going for, a stripped down, stark and wistful vocal treatment. The backing vocals were meant as a chorus of regular people singing, and I remember liking the way they fall in and out of key. These decisions illustrate my desire to paint a picture and let go of the need to make things that are “right.” Which contributes to the thwarting of pop star success, I guess.

Sometimes songs are cinematic, and this song evokes a complete movie that I experience when I sing it or hear it. Continue reading “Old Material, New Release: River Now”

You can listen to me read this post on Soundcloud or Youtube, or as Bliss and Drumming wherever you get your podcasts.

This next song in this series in which I’m discussing songs I’m re-releasing doesn’t quite fall into the category, as this is not a Clementine Moss song that I wrote the lyrics to, but a song from short-lived band The Solid, that I played drums in and that I helped write the music for. This song is “The Rich Girl and the Ranch Hand.”

The Solid was formed after guitarist Justin Caucutt and I met. I was playing in Zepparella and had just finished my first solo album and felt like I should have a third project to round things out in which I was playing original material on drums.

Justin is a great storehouse of riffs, and we started to get the music together by jamming a lot. He invited in bassist Greg Randolph from the Stonerrock band Greenhouse Effect, and the songs started to gel. Then Justin had the idea to bring in a singer from Denver, Brian Hagman. We flew him in and recorded a five-song EP, Arrivals and Departures, 2009.

Continue reading “Old Material, New Release: The Rich Girl and the Ranch Hand”

You can listen to me read this post on Soundcloud or Youtube, or as Bliss and Drumming wherever you get your podcasts.

For the next re-released song from the old catalog, we’re going to stick with the Stars Turn Me On album Goldrush for “ShangriLa Blues” from 2012. The audio shared in the video appears on the compilation album The Collection from 2014  .

Stars Turn Me On is the project with Justin Caucutt, and this song arose from this badass riff Justin came up with. That’s Justin’s forte, coming up with killer riffs. I love how this one just immediately announces itself and is relentless. I love the bassline, created by Robert Preston, who records everything I do. I love the way the vocal fits into the riff.

Continue reading “Old Material, New Release: ShangriLa Blues”

You can listen to me read this post on Soundcloud or Youtube, or as Bliss and Drumming wherever you get your podcasts.

Oh boy! The next song up for re-release is from my first album, Conversation with Francis Bakin from 2008, and it’s one of my favorites. “Sunshine” was the first video I ever created, and I think it might have been the first song I wrote in this period. Gretchen Menn provided her killing guitar here too.

This song has a special place in my heart, because it is so close to the essence of all the inner work of being Clem. It’s serious and silly both, and there are some facets here I love to explore about who we are as people and personalities, and the major lessons I’ve learned in my own journey.

Continue reading “Old Material, New Release: Sunshine”

You can listen to me read this post on Soundcloud or Youtube, or as Bliss and Drumming wherever you get your podcasts.

For the third re-release of old material, we’re going to turn to Stars Turn Me On, the project with my dear friend and guitarist Justin Caucutt.  The song is the eponymous song “Stars Turn Me On,” from the album Goldrush in 2012.

I met Justin old-school, through Craigslist. I had just finished my first album Conversation with Francis Bakin in 2008. Zepparella was working, and I had this songwriting project, and it seemed like there should be a third wheel to my musical being. I wanted to play drums in an original project. In 2009, a good way for me to do that was to put an ad on Craigslist, spelling out the type of player I was looking for.

Justin was the only person who answered the ad. When he showed up to jam, I remember us looking at each other in the practice studio lobby and both smiling goofily. We sort of immediately had a kind of recognition that we might already know each other, and we’ve been fast friends ever since. Continue reading “Old Material, New Release: Stars Turn Me On”