My name is Brian Clover Jr.
I am very unremarkable, my little world is not complex nor even fascinating. But I do love to mix of the traditions of country music with the influence of 60s 70s countrypolitan and the urban cowboy explosion of the 80s Country pop period, which I do understand some do not dig.
But I am proud to say I adore 70s and 80s country music and my motto is simply: “Forget self help books and YouTube influencers and just be a cowboy or cowgirl and listen to Johnny Cash”.
I have called myself a country singer/songwriter since I was in my late teens. However, I understand that there are maybe thousands of other country singer/songwriters so I attempt to make my songs – my country songs, if that makes any sense.
I am from Leytonstone in east London which used to be part of Essex. I now reside between to two homes, one over looking the sea in Holland-on-Sea unaffected by time in Essex, and the other in Hamilton outside Glasgow, Scotland.
My favourite country songs are “I Saw The Light” by Hank Williams and “Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
My major influences are George Jones, George Strait and, of course, Hank Sr.
In the lates 90s Jazz Summers of Big Life (he co-managed Wham) heard two songs I had written and said to me: “You sound like a country star from another time, probably the 1960s.”
I was so so proud of that. I think it was a compliment!
This was at the time Brit-pop was ruling the UK airwaves. I knew for sure that I looked and sounded different. I was not sure if I was any good, but I was different.
Today as I reflect on my life, I am sober, free and at peace with myself and, at times, even serene. My innermost self is still that boy who would listen hours on end to my mother’s country vinyl. It was mainly those 60s or 70s compilations, also a Hank Williams Best of which i played and played and played. Other records included Buck Owens, Tammy, Loretta, Johnny Cash, George Jones, John Denver and loads more.
In 1987 I found “Urban Cowboy” starring John Travolta on VHS video and it turned my country music life around, well actually my whole life around, and changed me for forever. I know that to be 100% true today.
My life went from black and white to colour. The outfits, the boots, the stetson, the dances and, of course, the country crossover soundtrack.
As a 15-year-old boy in my bedroom in a little village called Great Wakering in Essex, I would sit with my guitar and wear the stetson daddy brought me and try to write what I like to still call “country heartbreak anthems”. I am still doing that today… well, trying and with a different stetson.
I never really ever shut the door on my country music life but when Britpop kicked in I was very much an outcast in 90s Essex wearing my “cowboy gear”. I would busk in both Southend and Glasgow.
Busking for me is the single most direct way of getting my songs heard by the public.
I would say I am an ambitious failure with lots of near misses in the music industry. But, today, I just want to have my type of country songs listened to by lovers of country music.
My life is actually how it should be today. I love cowboy films and am a massive John Wayne fanatic.
When I sit down to write I have the mindset that it’s 1979 in Nashville and I am trying to write a song for, for example, Dolly Parton or Glen Campbell. That’s the process I have been using since my early 20s.
Today’s country music inspired me too, especially artists such as Lainey Wilson, Zach Bryan and Chris Stapleton. My favourite is Josh Hedley, “Mr Jukebox” and Charley Crockett is well cool too.
I have had meetings with publishing companies, artist management and record labels, the biggest being Jay Z Roc Nation who were taken aback by my quest to make country music which sounds like it’s from bygone days. However, I am happy just doing my own independent thing.
The truth is I have always been the bridesmaid but never the bride. Some time ago I reached a development deal with a management company then a publishing deal with Jazz Summers Big Life Music, writing to order for noughties pop acts.
A legal matter took me literally to the jumping off point, making me turn my back on music completely. However, last year I stumbled across a cool charity shop and purchased a classic 1960s big body country guitar. It’s what I like to call my “god moment” and I subsequently started to write again. Songs came flooding out of that guitar.
I try my best to make my songs personal and introspective, examining love, sexuality, spirituality, faith, mental illness and betrayal.
As songwriter and artist I am not afraid to lay my soul bare and vulnerable. I spent too many years pretending to be someone I was not.
I believe that “Tribute” lyrically demonstrates that and, for me, this is one of two types of country song which I love making. This one is what I call “music for those who wear cowboy boots and stetsons”.
The lyrics are about paranoia, jealousy and insecurity and seemingly the cure for these is within the confines of the bedroom.
This is the tale of a toxic relationship. I wanted the song to motor along with countrypolitan swag and I have to confess Billy Sherrill is a major influence on me.
My admission of addiction, which I have now recovered from, is overtly evident.
I have had extremely kind comments about Tribute:
“Remarkable piece of 70s Country Pop”
“Literate, heartfelt and bittersweet. Glorious ”
Life is cool today, and my latest double A-sided single “Head Full of Hank (Williams )” / “Valentine” is out now with live dates due soon.
I am busy in the studio recording my next singles “Cool Shades” and “Thunder”.
