1984-1988: The Duo – Larry Clyman / David Goldflies

Guild Semi Acoustic Jazz Bass Duo Days

Soon after the post-Allman Brothers breakup (’83?) splinter bands all fizzled out, I entered a very creative period in my life. I was left with all my skills, a little money and time on my hands in Bloomington, Indiana. Not playing in a group was a new experience for me since I hadn’t tapped into my talents as a single performer (guitar, vocals, violin) yet. I basically hung around the campus of Indiana University and jammed with different musicians.

At one jam in a particularly dirty basement, a fellow by the name of Larry Clyman walked in and began playing guitar. It was instant communication between my bass and Larry’s exceptional touch on the guitar. We wrote our first song, “Esus,” in two days, played our first gig in four days, cut our first recording in three weeks and started doing opening act gigs for artists with the (then new) Windham Hill label within six weeks. It must have been the right stuff at the right time. A huge amount of composition went on during that time. We spontaneously took advantage of all of our writing opportunities. For instance, while we were having one of Larry’s guitars repaired by a luthier in Nashville, Indiana we used two of the luthier’s guitars and wrote (created on the spot) the song “Workshop.”

The Duo: Larry Clyman and David Goldflies by Goldflies Music

Songs poured out of us for about 9 months. We both eventually moved on, but this was one of the most creative periods that I’ve ever experienced (so far!).

One thought on “1984-1988: The Duo – Larry Clyman / David Goldflies”

  1. Somewhere I have a cassette of this duo. I lived and played with Larry in Chicago in the early ‘90’s. I had the pleasure of learning your bass parts.

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