Sons of Sylvia Showcase Dobro Skills on New Album

Sons of Sylvia Showcase Dobro Skills on New Album

Elianne Halbersberg

April 7, 2010

When Adam, Ashley and Austin Clark — better known as Sons of Sylvia — refer to themselves as blessed, the term isn’t taken lightly. As three of the 11 children of an evangelical preacher and musician who taught all his children to play virtually every stringed instrument, blessings and music are both taken seriously.

Sons of Sylvia were originally known as The Clark Brothers, the name under which they entered and won Fox television’s The Next Great American Band in 2007. Based in Nashville, they are now on tour with Carrie Underwood and will release their debut album, Revelation, on April 27. They co-wrote all of the material, perform on the album and, between the three of them, play guitar, mandolin, fiddle, Dobro, lap steel, pedal steel, banjo, cello, bass and keyboard.

Austin Clark is most often recognized for his skills on the resonator guitar and Dobro. “What works for me is anything with a slide,” he says.

“I’ve known early on that this [ability to play music] is a gift from God, and to be able to present it to the world is another gift in itself. I’m thankful to have been given it. My first instrument was the Dobro, which I play on our record, along with lap steel and Melobar.” Clark swears by Gibson Dobros, noting, “I’ve had Gibsons my entire live. I absolutely love them. I’ve tried a lot of Dobros, but right off the factory line, Gibsons are the ones with the most consistent tone.”

Sons of Sylvia still do a lot of jamming. “It’s crucial for us, creatively,” says Clark. “We rely on it when we’re working on a song. The three of us get together, work it up, and it takes us in a direction — sometimes a unique direction — as we let the song drive itself and find its own way. If it moves us with, we go with it.” This, coupled with their bluegrass background, is what laid the foundation for Revelation. “Our dad taught us to play bluegrass, and that genre helped us grow as a band,” he says. “We combined all those influences, thoughts and passions into one record.”

That passion is what keeps music from becoming a job or routine for Sons of Sylvia. “It’s the sheer joy of just playing,” he says. “I open my case, take out my instrument and the excitement is always there. That’s very important. It’s different as an adult because I’m able to express it in my own way, which is also very important and in itself is the reason why we do this: to make the instrument speak the way we would speak. It’s an extension of us, as a band, and the fact that we get to do it every night is really living our dream. We’re very thankful that we’re able to have that.”

To learn more about Sons of Sylvia, visit www.sonsofsylvia.com.