Virginia Beach native Jake Clemons has spent the last ten years as the tenor and baritone saxophonist with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, stepping in for his uncle, the late Clarence Clemons. Jake still maintains an address in Hampton Roads, but primarily lives in Montreal, when he’s not touring. ‘Eyes on the Horizon’, his second studio album, was released in 2019. There’s some great talent on this great album, including guitarist Tom Morello, best known for his work with Rage Against the Machine, and multi-instrumentalist Jake Hull who co-produced the album with Clemons.
In September 2019, Clemons told the Montreal Gazette, “I’ve often been mentioning to Bruce how much I love Montreal and love living here. I’ll happily be an ambassador for this city amongst the E Street world,” says Clemons, who has been learning French from his multilingual, flight-attendant fiancée.
“I’ve lived in many places, but I really believe Montreal is becoming the cultural centre of North America, if not greater than that. I don’t feel art thrives in New York like it does here. There’s so much to celebrate here, especially during festival season. But there’s always something or some show going on here. And the food culture is second to none. And the people are so approachable. I’m just fascinated by Montreal.”
The album was recorded in Belleville, Ontario, Los Angeles, California, Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec, and Dublin, Ireland. All songs are written and arranged by Jake Clemons with the exception of “Democracy”, written by Leonard Cohen.