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DEC 2012
wasn’t supposed to be melodramatic.” Despite this, he kept getting requests for the song. He also wrote “Song in My Heart” as a birthday present for Jackie Whitaker, the founder of Ragamuffin. The song was about finding music and finding Ragamuffin. He said this was because she helped him gain the confidence to perform. Whitaker said when she first heard him sing, she was impressed by his voice. He had so much voice for a 15year-old, although he didn’t know what to do with it. Since then, he has honed it to the instrument it is today. When asked about “Song in My Heart,” she said it was very sweet, touching, and humbling to learn she helped him find his song. It meant a lot to her. One song Clark performed at Ragamuffin, Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” ended up on YouTube. Maureen said Clark was always quiet growing up. She never paid attention to his singing as a child, but when she saw him on stage, it moved her to tears. “It just opened my eyes,” she said. “I knew that was his thing.” Although he began at Ragamuffin, the singersongwriter/folk genre wasn’t really his style. His mother got him in touch with Carmen Bradford, a Grammy Award-winning artist who had recently moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles. He began taking voice lessons from her. “It was just a totally different experience,” he said. “It was like stepping onto the next level of understanding what great music is. She made me cry several times. She’s intense.” Bradford taught him quality vocals and exposed him to great music. Some of these records are still his favorites. During the time he was learning from Bradford, he began performing at R&B clubs and entering contests. At 16, he won the Roswell Rocks teen award after longtime family friend Monica McNeeley saw a flier advertising the contest and called his mother to urge Clark to enter. McNeeley became acquainted with the King fam-
ily in 2005 and after urging from Maureen, came to see Clark sing. “I thought she was just the typical proud mama,” McNeeley said. When she came to Ragamuffin that night, Clark was introduced as a 16year-old white boy with the voice of a 35-year-old black man. “I was blown away,” McNeeley said. “He came out on stage and sang and I said,’ ‘This kid has it.’” It wasn’t just Clark’s voice—he carried himself well and was comfortable in his own skin. At Roswell Rocks, Clark was the only participant who did not sing rock songs. Instead, his set of six to seven songs included the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind,” and Alicia Keyes’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” along with his own songs. He was pretty surprised to win the contest. As a reward, he got studio time to record one song and performed at the Roswell Fourth of July celebration in 2007. The first time he performed at a club, it wasn’t in Atlanta. It was Yancey’s, a soul club in Raleigh, N.C. while he was visiting cousins in 2007. “It was different, but I felt much more comfortable,” he said. “I’m kind of a loud singer.” The audience was so responsive. It was then that he realized this was the sort of atmosphere he thrived in. The more his audience cheered, the more he let loose. He compared it to discovering a new source of energy. After that, he found places similar to Yancey’s like the Apache Café in Atlanta or Café 290 in Roswell. In 2008, he won Café 2090’s “Who’s Got That Vibe” contest. While performing there, he was asked to enter a talent search held at Word of Faith, a megachurch headed by Dale Bronner. He was the youngest of 15 contestants and ultimately won $3,000. In 2009, he performed at Showcase of the South at the Rialto Theater and won the Entertainer of the Year contest. During that time, he began working with Raab Stevenson, a vocal coach who worked with Justin
The Apollo Theater invited him to perform at the 2010 Spring Gala…
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