JC Clements Band

J C Clements is an American folk songwriter and educator whose music carries the full weight of two great American traditions — the mountain music of Eastern Kentucky and the Chicago blues circuit that shaped her as a young artist. She does not separate them from each other, and she does not separate either of them from the work of teaching and healing she has done for three decades. For J C, music and learning have always been the same act.

Rooted in the Appalachian testimony tradition and writing explicitly in the lineage of Hazel Dickens — songs with teeth, with accountability, with the dignity of people whose lives are real and whose voices deserve to be heard — J C came to folk music through a path few artists share. In her early twenties she worked the floor at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago, absorbing one of the great living laboratories of American blues at its most authentic. She was mentored by the legendary Lonnie Mack. That apprenticeship was not her destination — it was her education. The blues taught her what a song can carry. Appalachian folk music taught her what a song can say. She carried both forward into work that is entirely her own.

The mountain music she grew up hearing came from her mother’s home in Hazard, Kentucky — a place where music was not entertainment but testimony, not performance but survival. That understanding has never left her writing.

Away from the stage J C holds a Master of Science in Adult Education from Indiana University and an Indiana state teaching license. She has spent decades working alongside survivors, adult learners, and people rebuilding their lives — in transitional housing, disability services, Job corps, college classrooms, and community education. She is the founder of the Hoosier Original Music Association and FARMette Indiana, and a committed member of the Folk Alliance and Folk Alliance Region Midwest communities.

Her upcoming podcast, You Are Not Being Chased by a Bear, brings together the two traditions that have defined her life — roots music and transformative learning — to explore what it actually takes to break a false frame, find your own voice, and build something true. It draws on the work of Paulo Freire, Jack Mezirow, Malcolm Knowles, Jerry Wise, Dana Cloud, and Erich Fromm, and it sounds like nothing else in the folk world because it comes from a life that took nothing the easy way.

J C Clements writes songs for people who were told a story about themselves that turned out not to be true. She has been one of those people. She knows what it costs to stop believing it. And she knows what it sounds like when someone finally puts it into words.

That is what her music is for.

Thank you Art Menius, Tom Troyer, and Megan Palmer for a fantastic SERFA! See you all soon!

Thinking of my family who lived in Perry County and what they had to face. So proud of their grit and devotion to their community and family. Grateful for the union that brought them financial security and peace.

Mrs. Clara Sullivan’s Letter Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesMrs. Clara Sullivan’s Letter · Pete Seeger · Malvina ReynoldsThe Smithsonian Folkways Collection℗ 2019 Smithson...

These two crazy kids are going to be playing .house on Friday May 8th from 5 pm - 8 pm. We hope to see you there! Get out and enjoy this beautiful place and life - you more than deserve it! Check out the new sound! https://open.spotify.com/album/4GDTCYPThGm4pKrXwnYDGA?si=vs8Z822KTXSIQpXhogbpPA