J.M. Clifford is a singer-songwriter and music educator from Brooklyn, NY. His music draws on Bluegrass, Folk and Americana. Clifford’s debut record, “On a Saturday Night,” was featured in The Bluegrass Situation and received rave reviews from Bluegrass Today and Holler Country. Clifford was an Official Showcase Artist at the 2023 IBMA Business Conference in Raleigh, NC. He is also an accomplished songwriter. His single “Slow Rolling Train” earned him a spot in the final round of the 2023 Rocky Mountain Songwriting Festival and the 2022 IBMA Songwriter Showcase. He was invited back to perform his latest single “Complicated Man” at the 2023 IBMA Songwriter Showcase. Clifford has toured nationally, and his end-of-summer lineup took him along the East Coast, featuring performances at The Outpost in North Carolina, The Highlands Bluegrass Festival in New York, and the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival in Maine.
Clifford’s upcoming record was produced by platinum-selling artist Ron Pope and features Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle), Seth Taylor (guitar), Jeff Partin (dobro), and Jeff Picker (bass). The record’s first single, “Complicated Man,” was released on September 20, 2023.
When he’s not leading crowds in song, Clifford leads his students as a NYC elementary school music teacher and Director of the youth Bluegrass ensemble at The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.