It didn't start in a rehearsal room. It started on the couch.
My wife and I were watching a story about electric chalkboards, you know, those old school tools turned new again, and something clicked. The idea of a board that's never finished. You write on it, you wipe it clean, you start over. That's what a jam is. Every night the song is the same title on the setlist, but what's actually on the board is completely different.
Right there we said it: Clyde's Electric Chalkboard. That was the name.
That was late last year, right as my other band was winding down. After 11 seasons with The Right TurnClyde Experience, The Right TurnClyde Experience was Pittsburgh's hardest-working horn-driven rock band and I'm proud of every show we played, we decided to end it. Our farewell was December 27th at Moondog's Pub in Blawnox. We gave the door to Band Together Pittsburgh and closed that chapter the right way.
For a couple weeks I thought I might just take a break. Then we took a trip up to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Walking through there, seeing how it all connects, how one band's experiment becomes the next band's foundation, it reignited something. I came home and thought, I've spent years experimenting with jam band music inside Right TurnClyde, stretching songs out, letting the groove take over. What if we didn't just sneak it in? What if we built a whole band around it?
That's when I posted what a lot of you saw back in November: "A new band is in the works. Clyde's Electric Chalkboard. A Tribute to Jam bands of America."
The idea was simple: create a whole new type of jam band tribute. Not a tribute to one band, but a tribute to the genre, to bring this music to a new audience here in western PA, while still entertaining the folks who already live and breathe this stuff. The Grateful Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, the bands that jam. Funky grooves and psychedelic energy, but with respect.
It all started early this year at Steamworks Creative Community Center in Gibsonia. That intimate room with limited seating is where we first plugged in to see if it would work. From there it grew into what you see now, adding players like Derek Montanye on guitar and vocals who truly digs the groove, and into the band that's been hitting Etna, Millvale, Cranberry, and coming full circle back to Steamworks on October 17th.
Same philosophy as that electric chalkboard my wife and I were watching that night: No two shows the same. Ever. The board gets erased and we draw it again, together, with you in the room.
Thanks for being part of the next drawing.
Clyde
Be part of the next drawing.
Find your next night out with Clyde's Electric Chalkboard.
See upcoming showsFrequently asked questions
Where did the name Clyde's Electric Chalkboard come from?
Clyde and his wife came up with the name while watching a story about electric chalkboards. A board that can be erased and drawn again captured the band's approach: familiar songs, with something different happening inside them at every show.
Is Clyde's Electric Chalkboard a tribute to one band?
CEC is a tribute to the jam band genre, including the music of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and Widespread Panic. The band brings funky grooves and psychedelic energy to listeners in western Pennsylvania.
