A Program Of Music On Clavinet

This album is the first in a trilogy of solo projects, each recorded on a single instrument. All sounds on this album emanate from the clav or my voice.

I bought my first Hohner Clavinet D6 at Richmond's Trading Post in Toronto when I was 16. It began a lifelong love affair with the instrument that accelerated when Hugh Marsh gave me my first Clavinet-Pianet Duo while I was with the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. I would busk with it in Toronto and NYC. When Kate and I began touring as a duo, it was often the only keyboard I would take.

The four cover songs on this record (Whole Of The Moon, Nautical Disaster, Broken Heart and Bold As Love) each carry deep relevance in my musical life. Playing on the street I would break songs down into clav arrangements like the ones captured on this record.

The Brooklyn Moon was one of the places I'd haul the clav to play original works in progress, often with Kate, as we were forming our writing. You can express so many ways on the instrument, it's at home in poetry and rhythm sections the same.

I'm not certain if there is another album that's exclusively clavinet. If you find one, do let me know.

— Hugh Christopher "Shuggie" Brown, Wolfe Island, November 2026