Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers bring independent spirit to Sound Bites festival 

By Tom Blodgett
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Fans of Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers have waited more than eight years for a new album from the quintessential Arizona-based rocker. 

But it is not as if The Peacemakers have left their fans high and dry since the release of "Native Heart" in 2017. Clyne, 57, could make a good case for inheriting James Brown’s title as the “hardest working man in show business,” relentlessly touring across the country — and in Mexico — in addition to tending to related business interests.  

Not having an album to support has not slowed his pace. This year, the band has or is scheduled to play 160 shows, which Clyne says is not as much as previous years. 

But when Clyne and The Peacemakers hit the amphitheater stage Oct. 11 headlining the Sound Bites Music & Food Festival at Gilbert Regional Park, they will not just be bringing their high-energy multigenre rock show, but coming in just as they are putting the finishing touches on their first album since 2017. 

Sitting in a Tempe restaurant with his wife, Alisa, Clyne reflected on the “goulash of reasons” it took so long to put out a new album. And while there are many — the effects of COVID, physical injury, the politicization of art, spiraling costs with fewer returns and plain old burnout — it comes down to this: with 10 studio albums in the vault, he wanted to have genuine inspiration.  

“I wanted to make sure that the music was something I could get behind first and foremost as a writer, which is where you should be writing from anyway,” he said. “But there's definitely been times where that ethos has been strained because people only pay attention to novelty. You’re only as good as your last record. And I guess I made a conscious choice to not believe that.  

“I think we have a great catalog, we have amazing fans and we'll put out music when it's a labor of love again.” 

Good news, then, fans: the forthcoming “Hell to Breakfast,” which the band plans to release to streaming services by late November and in vinyl form in January, represents just that. Clyne has been working on it off and on since 2022 and now they are in the home stretch. 

"Once I was putting down music again, it was giving me the chills to think about sharing it,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘OK, we're back. We're off to the races.’" 

The Independent

That Clyne would thumb his nose at the convention of having to get another album out is right in line with who he has been as an artist since Mercury Records showed his previous outfit, The Refreshments, the door. That came after their 1997 second album, “The Bottle and Fresh Horses,” did not live up commercially to the debut “Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy,” even as it received positive reviews. 

Not liking living under heavy hand of a label, Clyne and drummer P.H. Naffah reformed the band as Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers and went independent. 

Decidedly independent.  

Since then, Clyne has always done what he saw as best for him, the music and his community of fans. 

"Certainly a difficult path, but the road less traveled by has made all the difference,” he said, echoing Robert Frost. 

RCPM, as fans often refer to them, has released eight studio albums, three live albums and an EP through its own label. Emma Java Records.  

They have taken up their own merchandising through Peacetime Goods, which Alisa runs along with often being the trainmaster to keep all the band’s moving parts on track. 

They released their own brand of tequila, once called Roger Clyne’s Mexican Moonshine, named after a track on the "¡Americano!" album, but later rebranded as Canción, Spanish for song. 

They purchased a Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, cantina, a bar and live music venue, which they renamed as Banditos — the name of the Refreshment’s debut single and biggest hit — and also went in with "a confederacy of the willing” on purchasing JJ’s Cantina, an iconic Rocky Point spot. 

They put on two music festivals down there each year: Circus Mexicus in June, which grew from a kegger in 1999 to an organized event in 2000 to what is now a four-day festival; and January Jam, which was an outgrowth from 2008’s “Turbo Ocho” recording sessions, in which the band wrote and produced an eight-song album in eight days, then were persuaded to throw open the doors and play the songs live on their final day in Mexico. 

“Everybody in the band has skin in the game now to help,” Clyne said. “Everybody has family that they've raised on our cooperative, neighbors bringing music and live performance.” 

The "band of brothers" known as Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers will appear at the Sound Bites Music and Food Festival in Gilbert on Oct. 11. From left are drummer P.H. Naffah, Clyne, bassist Nick Scropos and lead guitarist Jim Dalton.

Ruston Clyne

The festivals are part of what is perhaps the biggest key to their success — the touring they do, well, from hell to breakfast. They have cultivated a fiercely loyal community of fans who turn concerts into celebrations.  

“I still get comments from other artists like, ‘We've seen loyal artists or audiences, but this is something different,’” he said.  

A new album

And now comes "Hell to Breakfast," the album. The title comes from a saying he has heard his rancher father use, and Clyne just loved the ring of it. 

“It’s used typically in context when something is in a state of acute disarray or lack of organization, and he said something like, ‘You better get saddled up or that herd’s gonna get scattered from hell to breakfast by sunrise.” I was like, ‘That is a cool saying.’” 

The phrase describes disorder, but Clyne sees it as fitting for the mix of styles and moods on the album. 

“The record covers a whole bunch of different subjects, and like I said, I'm genre agnostic, a whole bunch of different styles — my records always do — and a long time span, so I'm like this record has been hell to breakfast to get back in the corral.” 

The album cover itself is an Arizona connection: it’s being painted by Bob Boze Bell, the artist and storyteller who also is executive editor of True West magazine.

“He’s an Arizona treasure," Clyne said. "And he’s a great guy. Sharp as a tack. Really fun to hang with.” 

The songwriting has been done in typical Clyne style, a hands-on, notebook-driven process without any professional tools set up, working snippets into something more. 

“I get a song basically campfire ready, get the band together, sit down and go, 'This is how this goes,’” he said. “And they all do their part. Sometimes it’s drastic changes, and sometimes it’s no change at all, but it’s always collaborative.” 

That requires a bond among the bandmates, and The Peacemakers have it. They had some lineup shuffling through the early years around Clyne and Naffah, but Nick Scropos came aboard on bass in 2004 and Jim Dalton on guitar in 2008, and they have remained tight since then. 

“It's a band of brothers,” Clyne said. “We love each other, and we laugh together, and we drive each other crazy. But we are strong enough in our relationship both in business and in music and as friends. We tell each other the truth — even if it hurts. Nobody will ever hurt anybody. It's just we have to be honest.” 

For the uninitiated at Sound Bites, RCPM plays rock and roll, but influenced by Clyne’s Southwestern roots, tinged sometimes with country and Latin mariachi sounds. His writing at times displays humor or pathos or old-fashioned storytelling. The performance is mostly high energy, and Clyne leaves everything on stage each night. 

“They can expect a really fun show played by very seasoned, still spirited musicians,” Clyne said. “They're supported by just an amazing community of fans who celebrate life through rock and roll in a way I've never seen.” 

Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusua.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.  Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).