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<p>Zac Clark and Bob Oxblood are most widely known for their work with popular singer-songwriter and pianist Andrew McMahon &#8212; Clark in Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and Oxblood in Jack&#8217;s Mannequin &#8212; but it&#8217;s their own adept prowess as songwriters that has the artists on tours across the United States that overlap in a few cities, including Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Clark and Oxblood will perform their original music during a show that begins at 8 p.m. July 17 at Karl Hall.</p><p>Clark, who called the Times Leader from the road en route to his next tour stop, said he&#8217;s looking forward to playing at the venue operated by Wilkes-Barre musician A.J. Jump, whom Oxblood met during their mutual days in the Brooklyn, N.Y., music scene and tapped for an EP.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s exciting to link up with guys like A.J., who are building their dreams of bringing people together,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a guy who&#8217;s played brilliant drums on great music that&#8217;s out there, and he&#8217;s building up his own community.&#8221;</p><p>With his latest, eponymous record scheduled for release on Aug. 31, Clark has been musing about how self-titling his upcoming volume is part of a realization that he&#8217;s coming into his own as a songsmith.</p><p>&#8220;Touring with Andrew (McMahon) and with all the guys and gals in that crew and that band, that&#8217;s been huge in terms of finding myself,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;Playing with people I look up to and have such a mutual fan, friend and colleague relationship with, that&#8217;s the ultimate way to find yourself, to find these potent and high-resolution mirrors.&#8221;</p><p>While on tour with McMahon, Clark began writing and recording in hotel rooms and the backs of buses and &#8220;pulled over on the side of the road or in a dear friend&#8217;s driveway,&#8221; and, he said, the songs are a pastiche of the the places he&#8217;s been and the &#8220;feelings and textures&#8221; he&#8217;s experienced along the way.</p><p>&#8220;In the midst of making this record, for the first time, I had taken my time on a body of work and fit it in while working with Andrew,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;Playing with other people has been a path to being a little quieter about myself, deferring the announcement of self. It really came down to looking my mentor and friend Andrew in the eyes and having him say, &#8216;Hey man, it&#8217;s time. You need to take the reins on this and not let it murmur in the background.</p><p>&#8220;This record exemplifies that, lyrically and emotionally. I&#8217;m trying to pass that on to people: the idea of inviting your next self to the table as quickly as possible.&#8221;</p><p>Clark has released three singles off the record, &#8220;Mountains,&#8221; &#8220;Love You Later&#8221; and &#8220;Most of My Angels,&#8221; and the sample he&#8217;s offered touches on everything from anthemic pop-rock balladry to melancholy soul to classic piano-driven rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m back to a place where I&#8217;m most comfortable,&#8221; Clark said of the songwriting process, &#8220;putting down a song as it&#8217;s being written and relying on that core piece, whether a vocal or a keyboard part, and making sure that thread remains the lifeline of the song.&#8221;</p><p>To share some of his tour with Oxblood, an artist he has known for a decade and admired for longer, Clark said, is a privilege.</p><p>&#8220;Over the years, I was kind of the goofy kid who was motivated by these guys,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;I was such a huge fan &#8230; and I kept hanging out and bringing CDs of what I was working on. With Bob, to realize what a magical force of nature he is as a songwriter and guitarist and producer, has been incredible. He&#8217;s a guy who won&#8217;t accept limitations on his or anyone else&#8217;s music that he works on.</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t say enough of how glorious he is as a human being and what an asset he&#8217;s been to Andrew and John Legend and everybody he&#8217;s collaborated with.&#8221;</p><p>Clark&#8217;s upcoming album, while not officially released until the end of August, will be available in physical copies at his shows, an offering that, for him, is both a show of appreciation to those who support live music and a hearkening back to those days when he brought his early work to McMahon and Oxblood&#8217;s shows.</p><p>&#8220;We just did a show in Kansas City, and this kind guy gave us his music, and we could tell he felt like it was cheesy or cliche to approach us in that moment,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;I just kind of put my hand on his shoulder and said, &#8216;Dude, the reason I&#8217;m here is I was the guy giving people my CDs and not worrying about how cheesy it was.&#8217; I believe the more open or more kind you are and celebratory of the people around you, the more you disarm them, and we all start working together.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Songwriter and pianist Zac Clark said many of the songs that comprise his upcoming album, &#8220;Zac Clark,&#8221; were written and initially recorded while on tour with Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/web1_image1-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Songwriter and pianist Zac Clark said many of the songs that comprise his upcoming album, &#8220;Zac Clark,&#8221; were written and initially recorded while on tour with Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.  </caption0><photoCredit0>Courtesy of Alex Perkins | Twitter @alexkaneperkins </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/web1_ZAC-2017-12-13-001-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Zac Clark, of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, will perform his original music with a band that also features members of Jack&#8217;s Mannequin and Ben Folds on July 17 at Karl Hall in Wilkes-Barre. Jack&#8217;s Mannequin alumnus Bob Oxblood will perform his original music as well. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/web1_ZAC-2017-12-13-001-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Zac Clark, of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, will perform his original music with a band that also features members of Jack&#8217;s Mannequin and Ben Folds on July 17 at Karl Hall in Wilkes-Barre. Jack&#8217;s Mannequin alumnus Bob Oxblood will perform his original music as well. </caption1><photoCredit1>Courtesy of Alex Perkins | Twitter @alexkaneperkins </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Songwriters to bring original music to Karl Hall</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Matt Mattei</p><p>mmattei@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>Zac Clark (of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness), Bob Oxblood (of Jack&#8217;s Mannequin</p><p><strong>When: </strong>Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; show begins at 8 p.m. July 17</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>Karl Hall, 57 B N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Additional information: </strong>Tickets cost $14.36, including fees, and are available in advance at <a href="https://karlhall.org/" target="_blank">karlhall.org</a>. All ages are welcome. BYOB for patrons 21 and older. </p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or on Twitter @TimesLeaderMatt.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> 6cK2nhVpndc</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cK2nhVpndc</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> &lt;iframe width=&#8221;560&#8221; height=&#8221;315&#8221; src=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/embed/6cK2nhVpndc&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8221; allow=&#8221;autoplay; encrypted-media&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> Mountains - Zac Clark (The Pageant 4/11/18)</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> elevamy</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Zac Clark, Bob Oxblood to perform original music at Wilkes-Barre’s Karl Hall