{"id":388,"date":"2024-12-26T08:24:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T08:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/adventure\/?p=388"},"modified":"2024-12-26T21:40:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T21:40:01","slug":"john-cliftons-blues-as-hard-as-i-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/adventure\/john-cliftons-blues-as-hard-as-i-can\/","title":{"rendered":"John Clifton\u2019s Blues: \u2018As Hard As I Can\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you think of the blues; Fresno, California isn\u2019t usually the first place that comes to mind. But after attending just one soul-stirring, high-energy John Clifton show, I can assure you your perspective will change. Clifton grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, which is sometimes known as the food basket of the world. He spent his formative years working on drill rigs, learning to weld at the age of twelve and as a well-drilling contractor for more than two decades. Hard labor absolutely, but those physical and demanding jobs required both a steady hand and attention to detail. Skill sets Mr. Clifton continues to use to this day, it\u2019s just the tools have changed. Instead of torching metal to metal, he fuses musical genres. Instead of drilling into the earth, his blues plumb the depths of the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The John Clifton Blues band lights it up in Southern California Photo: Yachiyo Mattox.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On this particular evening just after leaving the stage, a smiling John Clifton sat down briefly for a quick, catch your breath moment. I\u2019m exhausted from just watching his performance, so the question begs, \u2018where does the energy come from?\u2019 \u201cYou should have seen me when I was younger!\u201d<\/strong> He laughs. \u201cI try as hard as I can all the time\u2026you know? I love what I do. I did a lot of stuff work-wise that I didn\u2019t like. I was a well-driller from the time I was 13 till I was 35 and I hated every minute of it. When you\u2019re drilling wells at its best, Hey this ain\u2019t so bad. All I could think about was blowing the harmonica, all the time. That\u2019s all I could think about. And finally after I kicked my drinking problem I said to myself, I\u2019m not going to do anything I don\u2019t want to do, ever again. I started doing all music stuff, got a job at a music store and sold all my well drilling equipment. I went into the (drilling) business myself, I grew up in it. I could weld when I was twelve years old. I decided one day, I sold all the stuff I\u2019d accumulated and went to work at a music store, part-time for minimum wage when I was 35 years old. This was all in Fresno, California where I lived. From that moment on I started performing, and cleaned up my act as far as drinking goes, so it means a lot to me, playing and entertaining people means a lot to me. Every minute that I\u2019m up there, I try as hard as I can.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first saw you perform with your brother in the MOFO Party Band. \u201cMy brother and I had the MOFO Party Band. We had been in separate bands but started jamming together and decided to put our own band together. One Sunday afternoon I was out with a couple of friends of mine driving around and I had quite a few beers. I was kicking back in the backseat of this car and I looked out the windshield and I see this old Ford Econoline van and around the license plate frame, this was about 1987, it said MOFO Party van. So I thought to myself, that\u2019s the name of my band. So I came home and told my brother, we\u2019re going to call ourselves the MOFO Party band. But we didn\u2019t have any gigs!\u201d (laughing) \u201cWe were just jamming in the garage. Actually I was playing in a country western band at the time, rhythm guitar and singing but I didn\u2019t quite have the guitar chops for country music that I have for blues. I loved country music but I didn\u2019t like playing it and got fired from the country band and my brother and I started playing together full time. We didn\u2019t really have a band it was just me and him and once in a while we\u2019d get people to come over. We used to go to a jam session at a Latin bar, but every Wednesday and Sunday they\u2019d have a blues jam. My brother and I would go every Wednesday and Sunday and it would go from 3PM to whenever it ended. The lady that owned the place thought we were so cool for coming in there, that she gave us free beer, all night. We\u2019d go in there, drinking beer all night and many times when we would finally open the door to leave\u2026it would be daylight!\u201d (laughing) \u201cAnd we would have to go to work. So here we are hung over, out drilling wells in 110 degree heat in Fresno.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n