Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers

“Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (RCPM) are proof that the crazy, reckless, restless, swaggering soul of American rock is still burning a hole in the night sky...guitars blaze, quake and quiver, drums slip, thud and thunder with killer melodies and hooks and the occasional reggae or mariachi rhythm laced through the middle to keep it all honest and interesting.”

- Tom Jurek

by Naomi Black
“Rock ‘n’ Roll and Mexico…with color, tequila, the sea, the desert…all the good things in one place and at one time! It is the most fun in the world!” That is how Roger Clyne sums up what is Circus Mexicus.
Each year, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers pack up their panchos, sombreros and music and head to the beaches of Puerto Penasco for their biggest concert event of the year. The music is rock ‘n’ roll with Mexican mariachi spice and some indisputable world beat rhythms; joined by the ocean, the sunset, the stars and fireworks to create the perfect blend of Circus Mexicus.
The audience is likewise a diverse blend of all ages. Many long-time fans will travel to Penasco for Circus Mexicus which is a 3-day extravaganza! Roger Clyne has a loyal following (formerly of The Refreshments whose single “Banditos” released in 1996 remains their best-known song). The band hopes that along with offering great music, Circus Mexicus will be a positive economic boost for the local businesses and vendors of Puerto Penasco. Likewise, the hope is that the local audience will be receptive to the blanket invitation to be a part of Circus Mexicus, thus demonstrating that no border should ever keep people apart!
Roger has a passion for Mexico which demands notice in his lyrics and music. This passion extends to his candid and realistic response to the recent media campaign which generalizes the entire country of Mexico in an extremely negative sweep. Of course, he recognizes that there are dangers anywhere, even in our own backyard! However, his belief is that “a rational mind will trump fear”. That by being judicious and using common sense, we CAN travel safely to places that we love! Only by doing so will we “reclaim our rational minds by thinking outside of the fear box”.
Roger recalls as an example, a recent trip when he brought one of his sons to Penasco for a sailing trip. Of course, he would never put any of his children in danger. But, he adds, “we cannot cower in fear; but live life with gusto!” Roger speaks with an obvious pride when it comes to his family! “The most precious thing in my life!” he says when speaking of his family: wife Alisa, his partner of 18 years and his children, Otis who is 12 and the twins, Rusty and Lillie who are ten.
Themes of love, passion, the desert and Mexico run strong in many of Roger’s lyrics. He tends to haunt Penasco when in search of some new inspiration. A favorite spot is under the salt cedars on the porch of JJ”s in Cholla Bay where lines to many of his songs were written, including the song Your Name on a Grain of Rice which includes this reference to JJ’s Cantina:
And now my second home is a third-world cantina
I spend years alone every day I don't see you
And to me the sunset is sinkin' in the sea
Looks like my own bleedin' corazon
The lyrics are a bit of conscience and a lot of pure, overt fun. When you add Decibels, Sombreros and Fireworks… you have Circus Mexicus!

The 3-day 2009 Circus Mexicus extravaganza begins on Friday, June 5th with the Hot Dog and a Smile charity event at JJ’s Cantina to raise money for Esparanza para los Niños orphanage. Music by P.H. Naffah and The Railbenders. Hot dogs served for donations and 100% of the proceeds will be donated. The main event will take place at Chango’s Bar & Grill just behind the Sonoran Sea and Spa at a new outdoor venue. The opening band is Dead Rock West from Los Angeles. On Sunday everyone can return to JJ's Cantina for the 2009 Mañanathon.
For tickets: www.peacetimegoods.com
For event details: www.changosrockypoint.com www.jjscantina.com
For band info: www.azpeacemakers.com www.deadrockwest.com www.railbenders.com
- Mexico Living

Several big-name acts are playing in Salt Lake City this week from pop diva Britney Spears to blues legend BB King. But for unadulterated, uncompromising rock 'n' roll with a southwest swagger and flare, the best concert of the week may be from a lesser-known band out of Arizona.

Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers recently marked 10 years of releasing albums, including two that landed at No. 1 on Billboard's Internet sales chart. All of this was accomplished through a grass-roots effort as the band has maintained a solid fan base despite being on an independent record label and having very little radio airplay. It's been an effort that has allowed RCPM to continue its credo of art leading commerce.

Winning over fans is something that lead singer and songwriter Clyne has done his entire career through constant touring, though it hasn't always been easy.

Speaking to the Deseret News from his home in Tempe, Ariz., the easy-going Clyne recalled the first time he and drummer PH Naffah's previous band, the late great Refreshments, played Salt Lake City at a small club about 15 years ago. When the band took the stage there were eight people in the audience.

"I just remember watching people start to cross their arms, then get defensive, then offensive, then leave the room," Clyne said with a laugh. "When your crowd is thinning out by 12 percent every time a person leaves, you see it. By the time we finished, there were two people, and they weren't watching. They were talking as loud as they could. I totally felt like we were intruding."

Today, one would be hard pressed to find anyone leaving a Peacemakers' show early. Their two-plus hour shows of high-energy rock, every evening, have become the trademark of the band. And no set list is repeated twice.

Clyne, Naffah, bassist Nick Scropos, and new lead guitarist Jim Dalton (The Railbenders), regularly tour the country three times over each year in addition to their annual show in Puerto Penasco, Mexico (Rocky Point to gringos), that draws several thousand fans from all 50 states. This year's "Circus Mexicus" weekend is June 6.

"I'm totally excited about it," Clyne said. "Part of the excitement is the risk involved."

That risk includes moving the longtime event to a new venue in Rocky Point. But there is also a concern about the negative press Mexico is receiving from the violence of the drug cartels in some regions of the country. But Clyne assures everyone that Rocky Point is safe.

"I was just there. I walked into JJ's (Cantina) and there on the TV is Anderson Cooper and pictures of automatic weapons and tanks, saying Mexico is not safe," he said. "Everyone in my favorite cantina is looking at the television and shaking their heads."

Clyne said he would definitely not encourage tourists to go into any of the violence-ravaged hot zones in the country. But he hopes people don't let fear prevent them from attending this year's concert.

"I'm the head of a family of five. I didn't feel any risk, and I'm a pretty cautious guy despite how I may come across in my songs," he said.

The Mexico show will be the first for Dalton, who replaced original guitarist Steve Larson earlier this year. The Larson split was the culmination of three years of festering creative differences.

With Dalton, Clyne said his new guitarist tries to keep it as simple as possible.

"Anybody who has to replay the music others have created, has to have a certain degree of ego transparency to replicate that. But you don't want them to be a robot. He's happy to do things verbatim where the song requires it, and find places where he can be his own man," Clyne said.

Clyne and Dalton have also been busy writing new material which he hopes will turn into a new Peacemaker album before the end of the year.

"I'm feeling good, feeling really excited about the future. RCPM just passed our 10th year of being a viable listened-to band. It's a wonderful thing when your frontier gets larger, not smaller. The journey is 10 years behind me. I want to haul (butt) and keep exploring. I'm just really excited about how it will proceed." - Deseret News

TEMPE, AZ -- 04/23/09 -- Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers will host "Circus Mexicus" June 5 through 7, 2009, in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, bringing across the border the band's sweat-drenched, tequila-infused marathon sets with fans singing every word.

The national band, based in Tempe, Ariz., will be joined south of the border by five other bands from California, Colorado and Arizona along with thousands of fans on the annual pilgrimage that combines the cultures of the American Southwest and Mexico.

There are two big changes to this year's event. First, a valid passport is a must to cross the border. Second, the band welcomes new lead guitarist Jim Dalton to the lineup.

"There's nothing quite like the Mexico show. You have to live it to experience it," said Clyne, who first gained national attention in the late 1990s with his band The Refreshments. The Refreshments enjoyed hits such as "Banditos" and "Down Together" and recorded the theme song for the popular TV show "King of the Hill."

Circus Mexicus weekend includes:

-- The "Hot Dog & A Smile'' charity event at 6 p.m. Friday, June 5, at JJ's Cantina. Hosted by RCPM drummer P.H. Naffah, donations will be accepted for hot dogs and sodas with all proceeds going to Esparanza Para Los Niños. The band raised $11,000 last year for the private, non-profit orphanage. Four bands, including The Railbenders out of Denver, will provide the entertainment.

-- The big event is Saturday, June 6, with live music starting at 3 p.m. at Chango's Rocky Point Bar. Gates for the main show open nearby at 6 p.m., amid strolling mariachis. Dead Rock West, a Los Angeles-based Americana band with a punk rock attitude, takes the stage at 7 p.m. with Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers kicking off their high-octane show at about 8:30 p.m.

-- Then on Sunday, June 7, fans will head back to JJ's Cantina for "Mañanathon" -- a casual party with RCPM on the beach that includes mingling with the band, plenty of Bloody Marys and breakfast burritos, and of course, more live music.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers is the only independent band to debut in the Top 10 on Billboard's Internet Sales chart for six consecutive albums, including two #1 entries.

While much has been in the news recently about Mexico, the Rocky Point area has not experienced the same kind of border violence being reported in other areas of the country. The band is reminding its fans to use common sense and conduct themselves responsibly, as is wise in any foreign country. "I believe in Mexico, and in the spirit of rock 'n roll," said Clyne.

Tickets are $28 in advance and $30 the day of the show. Tickets are available now at www.peacetimegoods.com

Find the latest information on Circus Mexicus at www.azpeacemakers.com.

Major sponsors of Circus Mexicus include Dos Cabezas WineWorks, XBALM, Performance Designed Products and Chango's Rocky Point Bar.

Chris Fiscus
Moses Anshell
(602) 254-7312 - Earth Times

Admit it.

This Memorial Day weekend was shaping up to be one big disappointment.

Sure, you raised a beer in honor of our fighting men and women around the globe and all the patriots who have ever helped secure our freedom.

And then you raised your 14th and 15th in honor of “that dude … what was his name? … the guy who told that joke at that party … he was friends with, uh, that other dude … maybe …”

Still, you are haunted by the question, “Is this any way to start the summer?”

Well, I have good news for you, my friends. Roger Clyne is coming.

He’ll get your summer started right.

Clyne isn’t well known in these parts, but believe me when I tell you that there are other parts where he is worshipped as a proliferator of fun, a minstrel of rare magnitude and magnetism, and a master of all things that can be both deeply spiritual and profoundly inebriated.

Clyne will bring his Tempe, Ariz.-based band Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers to C2G Ministries on Wednesday to celebrate the second anniversary of the Northeast Indiana Public Radio program “Little Brother Radio.”

The concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Here are some things you should know about Clyne.

He has groupies who follow him around the country. So numerous and avid are these groupies that they have their own name, a la Deadheads (for the Grateful Dead) and Parrotheads (for Jimmy Buffett). They’re called Peaceheads.

Clyne is frequently called Arizona’s Jimmy Buffett. This is flattering in one sense but may be distracting in another.

The mention of Buffett’s name should not obscure an inarguable truth about Clyne’s music: It’s really good.

Clyne does everything well: rock out, dial it down, rave it up, turn it loose, scale it back, shoot the works, etc.

He works dexterously in multiple genres and always brings a crack knack for song craft to each stylistic leap.

And if all this hasn’t been enough to convince you that you love Clyne more than any musician whose music you have actually heard, know that Clyne is such a witty and wise guy that one journalist described him as a “a philosopher living life to the fullest.”

Clyne laughs when he is reminded of this.

“I am like anybody else,” he says. “I get caught up in the moment and lose sight of my high ideals. I strive to achieve that designation, but knowing that I am always going to fall short of it may be about as wise as I ever get.”

Mexico looms large in Clyne’s songs, as does the Arizona desert, which Clyne says is almost its own country.

Clyne sings with roughly equivalent fondness of outlaws, tourists and dedicated drinkers of tequila (he has even launched his own brand of that liquor).

His is a regionally distinctive oeuvre, but Clyne says the people he sings about aren’t so different from people elsewhere and everywhere.

“Same characters, different scenery,” he says. “The New Jersey that (Bruce) Springsteen sings about and the Indiana that (John) Mellencamp sings about and the Florida that (Tom) Petty sings about – the characters are all the same.

“They look different on the outside, but the human heart is the same,” Clyne says.

Clyne says he has a simple goal with his music: “If someone can get to the end of a song or album we created and somehow feel a little bit happier – however they define that – then we have done some good.”

Clyne’s career has grown entirely through word-of-mouth (not to mention words-on-Web). He is not averse to commercial savvy but says the pop world seems alien to him.

“I don’t understand how anyone can be interested in which disposable pop star is breaking up with which other disposable pop star,” Clyne says. “And I don’t want to be a part of that.

“The rock ’n’ roll I grew up with bridged all gaps,” he says. “These days, the top layer of American media is pure schlock. I am not against it. I just don’t want to be a part of it.”

And yet there is at least one Clyne song that everyone has heard at least once.

Most of us periodically experience a cranial tape loop of the song that, unlike the “Every Kiss Begins with Kay” jingle, is actually a pleasant thing to have stuck in your head.

It’s called “Yahoos and Triangles.” But it is better known as the theme to the Fox TV show “King of the Hill.” Clyne wrote it with his earlier band, the Refreshments.

He says it is such an obvious song to play during a concert that he often forgets it.

Don’t let him forget it. - journalgazette.com