Fifty Years of Clown School

Mission

At its best, music heals the human soul. The job of a musician is to have a foot in two worlds — the world of spirit and creation, and our Earthly realm. We bridge that gap to bring inspiration into an increasingly complicated and messy world.

This collection of original music was written in that spirit. Although there are no words, this music tells a story and takes each listener on a journey. The genesis of these tunes came from me playing music by myself in order to regulate a jangled nervous system. I needed to tap into something larger than myself to feel reassurance that there is still good magical mystery in our world. All these tunes came from that desire to ultimately heal myself and to be a conduit for inspiration.

This is the most personal music project I’ve ever undertaken, which is a vulnerable position to find yourself. Caring about something and putting your whole heart into an effort is scary and unknown, and it frankly would have been far easier to keep all this to myself — but I’ve been moved to share. Needless to say, my motivation is not for financial gain — it’s to fulfill my bargain as an artist, to bring beauty into our world.

My prime directive remains constant: allow music to work its magic, and try to stay out of its way. These tunes came in to heal my soul, and I truly hope that others can share in that experience.

Liner notes

This record was written in January of 2025 in my studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The weather was cold, and I had some time to play on a new-to-me fiddle I had just acquired. Most days, I’d turn on my recorder and just start playing with my favorite aspect of the fiddle — the resonant overtones created with drone strings and double stops.

During these sessions, I would choose a key, start with some simple drones, then I’d begin playing around in a key — not paying any particular attention, just enjoying the shifting resonant frequencies of the fiddle. Before you know it, a tune would appear. I didn’t write them. They would just pop out. I was simply playing, and they came out to play too.

By the end of the month I had amassed forty-some tunes, and I narrowed them down to my favorites and made demos. I shared them with my old friend Chris Sharp from the John Hartford String Band days, and he was the right guy to light a fire under me to record these with a proper band. From the beginning, he actively believed in the project and wanted to help.

During pre-production, we used Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, second movement (the first three minutes), which I believe to be the most deeply healing piece of music, as the north star of our project. It features a simple melody taken on a deep journey through Beethoven’s arrangements and orchestration, using tension and release to create a throb of sorts. There is a stoic, simple beauty to it that moves from very small and intimate to grandiose and triumphant. To me this was very reminiscent of fiddle music, and in line with the vibes of the tunes I channeled.

So we set out at the very beginning with a vision of this record being more than a fiddle record — we wanted it to be a healing record, one that makes people feel better, like the Beethoven. While I don’t compare myself with Beethoven, we set out to use the same principles of tension and release, dynamics, rhythm, and harmony to create a similar journeying feel.

We envisioned this as an ensemble record, with the combined whole being the emphasis rather than individual performances. We set out to create a story out of every tune, each having its own arc. The day of our first session, I played the Beethoven excerpt for the musicians in the room to demonstrate our aim. Although there were no formal arrangements, the musicians understood the goal.

We gathered in my studio with no headphones, no click, and no plan — and this is what came out. These are mostly second takes with very little editing and few fixes. Played live in one room, this is a true snapshot of a period of time.

Recorded in March and April of 2025, this is Fifty Years of Clown School.

— Matt Combs