CLOVER COUNTY
WORDS & IMAGES BY DAVID KATZINGER
There was tornado weather in Tennessee on the day we met up with Clover county
The clouds blanketed the afternoon sky like blackout curtains and the rumble of thunder shook the ground. But even through the rain and the tornado sirens that came later in the day, Clover shined with her easy smile and endlessly optimistic disposition as we navigated the storm.
The weather broke, just enough for us to take a few pictures, share a few laughs and listen to the calming melodies of Clover County echoing from inside the empty barn that we used as a storm shelter.
Clover is an artist who’s building a world around herself, the world of Clover County and she’s inviting us all in.
CC: Clover County started when I moved to Athens, Georgia. I was curious if I wanted to start playing shows and I was running around seeing all these cool show posters up and I was either really drawn to a name or really turned off by a name. My given name is Amandagrace which is like a play on the Bible hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. It’s very sweet and I love my name, but it’s very church and I didn’t want that to be up on a poster and potentially turn someone off to seeing my music or have them make assumptions. That was kind of the reason I wanted to pick a name that gave me a little anonymity. I decided on Clover County because the idea is that Clover County is a space where everybody is invited to step into.
DK: You’re creating a world with Clover County. It isn’t necessarily an actual place, but it is THE place where your music resides?
CC: Yes and everybody is welcome to that space and to kind of make it their own community. The idea is also that I am built up by all of these places that I’ve lived, Denver, Birmingham, I grew up in Florida, and I’ve spent the last 6 or 7 years in Georgia. All of those places have influenced the music and I’ve taken them with me.
The clover symbolizes that the next town that you get to is like “the lucky place” which was always a pressure that I put on myself.
DK: Why were you moving around a lot?
CC: My dad was always working out of town from what I remember growing up and then was home on the weekends. And we moved out to Colorado when I was in the 6th grade. At 18 I was alone in Birmingham and then alone in Athens.
DK: How did it feel growing up changing locations a lot?
CC: I loved it. I remember being so excited to move to Colorado. I was leaving 5th grade and it felt like there couldn’t have been more rebirth going into middle school and being in 6th grade and it felt like a culture change and I could change my name and nobody would know that I changed it.
My dad played guitar and wrote songs when he was 18yrs old and still does. He played us the same 3 songs that he’d written on his guitar and when he moved away for a while to work, I decided I was going to learn guitar to impress him and to try and bring him back… and it worked. I was 13yrs old at the time and we were living back in Florida. I learned “Give Me Some Water” by Eddie Money and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison. They were two of his favorite songs. He loved it when he heard me play and every time I’d finish a new song I’d go out to the kitchen and play for him and then run back to my room and fix it and then go back and do it again.
My parents knew from a young age that I was not an academic weapon and numbers were never my friend. I couldn’t do math. I was much better at lying about how my homework went missing than actually doing it.
DK: So you’re good at making up stories?
CC: Yes, I’ve been a storyteller for a long time.
DK: So you started Clover County in what year?
CC: I think it was 2022.
DK: If you were to put together a few of your milestones since then, what would you consider those to be?
CC: The first thing that comes to mind was my first ever headline in Athens. That was October of 2024 at the 40 Watt Club.
In 2023 I played as Clover County for the first time and then it would’ve been that Fall that I released my first song “Outlaw.” I’d just play wherever I could. So if someone was coming through town, I’d try to open for them and take any gig I could get.
DK: What’s your take on TikTok and all of that? I know a lot of artists are pressured to base their release schedules on what does well on social media.
CC: I was kind of an asshole about it early on and was almost anti-TikTok. I had a sort of pride about being a grassroots performer. I’m not so mean about it anymore because I do understand that it’s such a good resource and a tool. I have more negative things to say about it regarding peoples attention spans.
DK: Yeah, you put all of this thought and care into crafting a song for it to just be swiped passed or consumed in 15 seconds.
CC: Yeah, 5 seconds of their attention and if you’re lucky 10 seconds and then if you’re really lucky they stay for the whole video. It makes you feel cheap trying to sell yourself to an algorithm that’s only rewarding people who are paying it or who are willing to sacrifice some part of themself.
DK: Do you have any inspirations for the music that you make?
CC: Totally. I feel inspired by peoples stories and the longevity of a lot of peoples careers. I look up to people like Sheryl Crow, Carole King and James Taylor. It’s music that my parents loved when they were younger and it’s so timeless that I love it and we love it together. It’s music that I’ll show to their grandkids. They maintained their humility and their humanity throughout their careers. Right now Suki Waterhouse is someone who I really look up to. I feel like we’re in this age where all these people are very anti-kids and anti-husband or partner and nothing can tie you down, you’ve gotta reclaim your life. But growing up in the South I really value partnership and I’ve always wanted to start a family and have good friends around me.
Suki really paints an awesome example that you can have both, this awesome indie rock glam star career and be a fashion icon and have a baby who you love and spend time with.
I feel weirdly grateful that I was able to observe people in the industry that I did respect and people that I didn’t respect. The people who conducted themselves with kindness and were humble where I could see their hard work paying off for them I loved and respected. I kind of track with that. None of this means anything, a viral moment or a sold out show or good streams on my music, getting to do this for the rest of my life if the people around me, my team, my family and friends aren’t happy, respected and fulfilled as well.
Self respect and understanding the power of influence is incredibly important.
The reason I haven’t moved to Nashville yet, and I love being around other artists and having artist friends, but I find that there is a lot of sneaky comparison. And trying to people please. If there are 6 of us together and we’re all trying to convince the internet that we’re the next big thing, we’ve already lost it. It should never be about being the next big thing, it should be about art. I would be making music even if nobody cared and I was broke.
DK: What for you is the biggest indicator that you’re on the right path?
CC: I feel really happy. And I think that’s a really good indicator. I feel lonely, but I feel happy. I miss a lot of my friends and family and I’m friends with a lot of artists. And it’s tough to say, but you do have those thoughts of is this person really my friend. Even if they don’t know it, do they believe to their core that they’re really my friend? Can we be friends in this specific moment of our early careers as similar artists when it’s so measurable with Instagram followers and all of the numbers that are presented to the public. It makes it hard to trust that we’re all confident in ourselves and nobody is judging or looking down on you.
DK: What’s your mentality when you go into opening for an artist?
CC: Nobody wants to feel like they’re being performed to, especially by someone that they technically didn’t pay to see.
Opening up for people this past summer really taught me that if this is what it’s going to be like every other night for the rest of my life then this has got to feel good. So making people laugh and making myself laugh is the most important.
DK: You talked earlier about painting a picture of what Clover County would look like as a whole. Can you elaborate on that?
CC: Clover County is somewhere that’s like Southeastern coastal and perfectly humid. The houses would be super cutesy and eclectic. It’s Southern gothic, but it sparkles. The food is so good for you and every fruit and vegetable is in season. Everybody is there and it’s pretty classic and a little traditional. Everybody is getting educated and everybody is welcome and encouraged to practice the arts, but it’s not forced down anybody’s throat. There’s always a little league baseball game happening.
DK: Have there been any recent standout moments for you around making your first album that felt really special?
CC: I was talking before about how this all has taken me away from my family more often than not, but starting with touring I think the coolest thing was my brother in LA, the architect, took all of his vacation time off this past November and I lived with him for a month and then we spent a week and a half on the road. We started in Phoenix and ended up in Sacramento and he was my roadie and that was really cool and brought us together and we were very close to getting matching tattoos.
DK: Do you have any tattoos?
CC: I have this one [a heart shaped lock] that I got on my first trip to Nashville by myself and it was like wearing your heart on your sleeve, but love yourself well before you try to love others.
DK: Are you gonna sleeve it up?
CC: I would love to, but I can’t do that to my mom.
DK: How do you feel about everything that’s been happening with your career so far? Does it feel like it’s been fast or comfortable? What’s your take?
CC: It’s felt really fast. Two weeks after graduating college I went on tour with Lord Huron and we were playing to like 10,000 people a night and two of those nights were sold out Red Rocks shows.
DK: So you’ve played Red Rocks twice already?
CC: Yeah, haha. Two weeks after college. That was my first taste of touring and playing live outside of Georgia and I was like this is too good to be true. And I remember the second night of Red Rocks people were looking at me like “yeah, this is going to be a while before you get to do this again ya know” and I was like “What do you mean? We’ll be here again next Summer, right!’
So it happened really fast early on in a way where I was prepared and really confident about showing everybody and the people who were watching me for the first time and my team that I could do this and was ready to go.
DK: What prompted that? How did that gig even happen?
CC: Lord Huron hand-selects their openers and I ended up on their radar of music that was being fed to select an opener for that tour and Ben of Lord Huron sent me the offer. I was studying for an accounting exam and I was failing accounting and I was like, “I am so fucked. What am I going to do after school?” I can’t take a 5th year and this is the second time taking this class. So getting that offer and then going back to studying I felt like I was going to be fine. If I could get a ‘D’ on this exam there’s something I’m meant to do beyond what I have to do right now. What I’m going to do and what I’m meant to do is going to grab me by the britches and it did! That’s what got me through my senior year. The offer was in March and the tour was in May and graduation was May so I was like OK just graduate.
It could easily feel like I’ve peaked and that I deserve to be there again, but I don’t. I didn’t deserve to be there the first time. I was up there thinking about all of the bands back home who would’ve killed it way harder than I did.
Every single day I get a comment or a message from somebody who’s like I saw you play with Lord Huron, it changed my life, you were the best opener I’ve seen. I was working at Free People the other day and this lady stopped me and was like you look so familiar…you’re Clover County! I’m from San Diego and I saw you play in San Diego last Summer and her friends were like, she’s such a big fan can we get a picture. And I was like selling clothes for $11 an hr.
DK: So you don’t work at Free People anymore?
CC: I do! That’s my current gig.
Her smile said it all. Clover County is not a made up place, it is very real.
*Editors note: Clover was fired 1 week after this interview for taking too much time off to tour this summer.
ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE
Clover County performs her unreleased song “Sweeter”.
Video - David Katzinger | Editing - Kathleen Howes | Styling - Tyland Jackson | Hair & Make up - Shelbie Kramer