TRACKING

Award winning engineer, Nashville session player, Touring musician and filmmaker Micheal Bear Clair brings more than 40 years of rock solid experience to the session every time he takes on a project. 

He began audio engineering at National Tape Corporation in Nashville in 1984, serving as a mastering engineer on Projects as far ranging as the Yoopers to mastering the very first Binaural beats Tapes, Projects by Nancy Griffith, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Members of the Grand Ol Opry including Charlie Walker, Billy Walker, Ray Price, Porter Waggoner and many other Opry Stars. 

He was lucky enough to have great mentors in his career, One in particular taught him about everything from Publishing, recording, writing to playing Guitar,  Chet Atkins was highly influential in Bears life and was a mentor till his death. His other Mentors included Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band who he remains very close to, also Blues artist Keb Mo whom he considers family as well. All these great writers and players taught him to raise the bar when it came to recording and writing songs. 

 Another great friend and mentor was Hal Ketchum. Hal was one of the greatest writers and friends in Bears life. They traveled together and spent a lot of time talking about crafting songs and producing records. Hal sadly passed away 2 years ago. 

This level of training and gleaning of knowledge was not wasted on Bear. He soaked it all in and put it to use. 

In 1991 Bear moved to Idaho and soon met Steve Miller, who gave him much needed work and the best advice and teaching he would ever receive. Steve took the time to teach Bear about the actual BUSINESS of music. From how deals are done, to actual tour planning and publishing business. Bear refers to this as the SMAM method which stands for Steve Miller Approved Method. Steve is one of the most successful songwriters of all time for a good reason. He took it all very serious and runs his business very well.

 During that same time in Sun Valley Idaho where Bear lived, he met Movie actor Bruce Willis who hired Bear to be his In House Audio Engineer for his clubs and his Band the Accelerators. This went on for 3 years until Bear took a job as guitarist for Alligator Records Artist CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Bear did several world tours with CJ and learned much on this 2 year adventure with the veteran zydeco artist. 

During this time he did FOH engineering for acts such as Dread Zeppelin, Jerry Joseph and the Jack Mormons, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin, Buddy Guy, BB King, Bo Diddley, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Bananarama, Natalie Cole, Keb Mo, Carol King, Robert Cray, Brian Setzer, Stephen Stills, Sam Lay, Jr Wells, Tinsley Ellis, Inflatable Soule, Peter Cetera and countless others. He also became lifelong friends with Surf King DICK DALE. Learned a lot from Dick as well. The Stories are endless. He also recorded CDs for Artist like Lyle Sinclair, a legend in Idaho and a former touring mate of the Frizzell family. Lyle and Bear remained best friends until Lyles passing in December of 2021. 

In the Early 2000s Bear was approached by a documentary filmmaker to score her movie called THE COST OF FREEDOM. It won best score in a documentary film in 2005 at Seattle film fest and Los Angeles film festival and was a highly regarded film at Sundance and Canne. Along with that film Bear has produced loads of Commercials for major companies across the US. He has been twice nominated for Grammy Awards for his work with Artists on Warner Brothers and Alligator records. 

He was the host of the Sideman Show in Nashville TN which featured session players and touring musicians who would come to Bears house, enjoy BBQ and be interviewed for his show. His last session in Nashville was with his pal David Frizzell. Bear played Acoustic guitar on all the tracks of the Frizzell and friends CD. 

After years of touring and moving around Bear came home to Iowa in 2013. He and his wife Renee run the studio and play in the band named after it. SWAG.

 Renee Clair and Mitch Smith front the band while Bear and fellow blues hall of famer, keyboard wizard Jeff Taylor provide the music behind the great front singers. 

Bear brings a lot of experience and technical know how to the table with every project. He and Renee have built a place for artists and writers to express that art and have it captured beautifully. 

The Old house was built in 1863 and has a very special meaning to this family. Bears family members have been in this house since it was built. On the wall is a picture of the entire family done in 1914. Roots run deep here and it shows in the music coming out of SWAG STUDIOS in Mt Auburn Iowa. Come record in our studio and leave with a product that you can be assured will be the highest quality product you can get.