E-Streeter brings music, insights on life to Ceres living room

Crisp notes picked and strummed on an acoustic guitar. A lone voice singing of love and pain, fear and healing, but above all, of hope. Two hours of world-class music poured out of a small house with a white picket fence on a corner lot in west Ceres.

Jake Clemons’ U.S. Living Room Tour took its final bow in front of the brick fireplace of Jeff and Brenda Brown on Saturday night. Thirty-plus friends and co-workers formed a relaxed and enthusiastic audience, sitting on rows of folding chairs, bar stools in the back and a sidelined couch.

Longtime fan Jeff Brown said he was as surprised as anyone when Clemons picked his living room. He has been to 24 Bruce Springsteen concerts, watching Clemons’ late uncle Clarence playing sax. Jake Clemons toured with the E Street Band in 2012 after his uncle’s death.

Brown said he follows Jake Clemons on Twitter, tweeting notes on his songs, and thought that might have played a part in his being picked.

“It’s a mystery,” he said before Clemons’ arrival. “I submitted a request and, lo and behold, in Ceres! We’re going to have Jake Clemons in my living room.”

Brown said it cost him nothing but a small spread of sweets and dips. Water, soda and beer sat iced in coolers on the front porch. Web sales of tickets cost around $30, he said, sold by word of mouth at his job at Foster Farms in Livingston and Brenda’s as a teacher at Westport School in Ceres.

That elementary-classroom, join-in vibe came through as the group “doo, doo, doo”-ed along, playing horn section to Clemons’ acoustic guitar while he sang, traveling companion Quincy Clemons inking sketches of his little brother from the back row.

Clemons – in his trademark curly hair and dark-rimmed glasses – stood by the fireplace hearth, his foot tapping the wood floor. Whales swam behind him in a wooden frame. Family smiled from the photos. Small barks occasionally chimed in through the sliding glass door.

“It’s an amazing thing to just be right in front of people,” said Clemons, standing in a semicircle just 6 feet or less from the front row. “This is a gift for me.”

The living room tours were a way to avoid the logistical hassle of large venues, he said, but also matched with his deeply held belief that music is a community experience.

“For thousands of years this is how people experienced music,” Clemons said. “This is ancient. It was in living rooms, pubs, churches. People getting together – steel, wood, spit and air. Over the last 60 to 70 years, something happened. We plugged in.”

He intermixed his soft rock repertoire with reflections and stories – the everyday people he met on tour, the death of his dad last year, the E Street Band concert he went to at age 8.

It was his first time hearing his uncle play and he was mesmerized.

“I decided I wanted to play the sax. My dad said I could take piano,” he said with a soft groan.

“I didn’t see it at the time, but it was one of the best gifts he ever gave me. Piano lays the foundation for everything. It’s a symphony at your fingertips.”

Clemons, 35, grew up moving with his dad’s Marine Corps career and now calls Virginia Beach, Va., home. His dad died last year, a sadness still echoing through his lyrics: “Life is bitter, bittersweet. But a little bit of sweet makes it better,” he sang.

After the concert, Clemons said his team picks the living rooms in part from the fan vibe, in part from what makes sense geographically in a one-month tour with stops in 20 living rooms. The Browns’ home was his last for a while as he stops to work on an upcoming album.

Coming to the area really struck him, he said, “Signs like from the ’20s. Cool cars.” Modesto’s annual Back to Graffiti weekend, explained his hosts.

He played mostly his own songs but mixed in a few classics, including one he didn’t like much while it was topping the charts.

“But that’s the cool thing about music,” he said. “It might not apply to a certain moment of your life, but life changes, and sometimes songs come back to you.”

Clemons played Brown’s favorite song, “Song for Hope,” which can be heard at the artist’s website, http://jakeclemons.com.

“Music should be tangible,” Clemons said as he closed the concert. “You should feel it on you skin. We’ve all got to be in the same moment together.”

He added, “There are artists in your community with moments to share.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2015 at 5:59 PM with the headline "E-Streeter brings music, insights on life to Ceres living room."