Steely Dan and Clay Aiken

When watching the video below, did you ever wonder who those musicians are who are working with Clay and Kipper in the studio?

From the CD liner notes we find out that some of the musicians on the CD are:

Drums: Keith Carlock
Bass: Freddie Washington
Guitar: Jon Herington
Piano, Organ, vocals: Jeff Young

The people at The ConCLAYve blog have done the research and this is what they found out:

There's a connection between these four musicians.

The men on this CD are the longtime Steely Dan band, backing Donald Fagen and Walter Becker --- and not a single one of these “music critics” recognized them or their musicianship.

Fusing jazz, pop and blues, multiple Grammy-winners Steely Dan (Donald Fagen and Walter Becker) are one of the most acclaimed bands in music history. They are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

This is the caliber of musician that Clay Aiken chose as his session men for "On My Way Here."

But assumptions are an interesting thing. Critic after critic, determined to dismiss any effort Clay put forward, wrote reviews with little or no bearing on the reality of the music on "O My Way Here" --- right down to trashing musicians they had praised in other reviews. According to multiple sources, Keith, Freddie, Jon and Jeff are considered among the best session men in the world --- unless they are playing with Clay Aiken, apparently.

Fascinating. And I'm quite impressed.

I highly recommend that you head over to The ConCLAYve blog and read more about these musicians and their history. It's a good read!

Link: Measuring The Gap Between the Critics and The Truth

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Clay Aiken, Steely Dan, Keith Carlock, Freddie Washington, Jon Herington, Jeff Young, critics, review, On My Way Here