Bio: Clarke Nagle

Clarke Nagle was born and raised in a small town in southwest Iowa. Music was an avenue of escape from boredom and random teenage angst.

Encouraged by his maternal grandmother, a self-taught guitar player of “mountain music” to play whatever makes one happy, he dabbled in some forgettable junior high groups and then had a musical moment of clarity. According to Clarke, “I had stumbled across these great old 45’s and 78’s at a yard sale, and had this epiphany while listening to them. Everything I’d heard before had been lifted in some way from these guys: Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry lee, Bob Wills, Chuck Berry and a bunch of others. These guys laid it all out for everybody else.”

He spent hours at an old piano pounding along to this music and listening to blues, gospel, Honky Tonk, Dixieland, Country and whatever else was on.

After moving east in the mid-70s, Clarke played in a few local Cleveland bands. He took breaks from playing out from year to year, at one point even playing piano in the church for a while. He joined the band Enemy in the late 90s. It had some great musicians, but self-destructed after a decent run.

With a six degrees of separation type connection, he found himself at dinner with old friend, Mark Ecclestone who mentioned he was in a startup group with some guys. Not known for shyness, Clark invited himself to practice and became keyboard player for TEST OF TIME which later morphed into VERVE DADDY. “I’m really stoked about being with people who want to create music, not just play it,” says Clarke. “Muddy Waters said it best – the blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.”