When it comes to South Florida’s current music scene, area musicians know it’s a jungle out there. Gone are the 20th-century days when one could earn a living locally by exclusively performing within the realm of popular music.
So modern success stories usually involve versatility — as in original songwriting plus cover-song acumen, multiple instruments played within different genres, lead and backing vocal capabilities, and offstage activities that serve as significant musical side hustles.
In a Ford TV commercial, Puerto Rican singer/guitarist Luis Fonsi says that versatility is everything, so it must be true. And such is the case with Hollywood-based one-man band and master of multiplicity Cliff David Greenberg (www.facebook.com/cliff.w.greenberg).
A 54-year-old Brooklyn native, Greenberg is a lead and backing vocalist who plays electric and acoustic upright basses and guitars in settings ranging from his pop cover act The ShinDig (theshindigband.com) to the pop-jazz ensemble Swing Somethin’. He even played all those instruments and more on his recent release First Person, an independent, one-man, all-instrumental recording that took the shape of an entrancing, atmospheric audio travelogue.
“I’d been working on the music from that album for years,” Greenberg says, “but let it go for a while before coming back to it. I played drums, basses, guitars, cello, ukulele, piano, strings, percussion, melodica, and some sound effects on it. The album was recorded after my mom had been diagnosed with cancer and my dad was in a nursing home, and while I was going back up north to visit them every week or two.”
The singing multi-instrumentalist’s musical extracurriculars include both teaching and production/engineering work at his successful, home-based 14-year-old Studio 19 in Hollywood. With many of his music lessons occurring online, Greenberg may be one of those rare musicians who benefited from the Internet supplanting live gigs and in-person interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I teach music on Tuesdays and Fridays at Paideia Classical Academy in Coconut Creek now,” says Greenberg, “but most of my lessons, student and adult, are taught online from Studio 19. Everything morphed through COVID for me, because I’ve had great success ever since by teaching virtually.”
“Cliff is an amazing teacher,” says Sami Strong, The ShinDig’s gifted vocalist. “He hops at any opportunity to help someone else find their voice within any instrument. If someone sits down at a piano to explore, or asks a question about theory or musical history, time stops and he jumps in head-first. He’s given thousands of hours to young hopefuls to equip them with the tools for success. He’s also a great adviser, from breaking into the biz to mastering a track for mass consumption.”
Greenberg once found 20th-century success in South Florida after moving down from Brooklyn in 1995 and studying music at Broward College. In 1997, he succeeded Phil Kalasz and Mike Hill to become the third electric bassist for InHouse, the successful original pop quintet that played an abundance of Palm Beach County gigs, recorded three albums, and toured out of the state between 1994 and 1999.
Going under the stage name Cliff Wallach by adopting a family last name with InHouse, Greenberg also earned the nickname “Ramen” for his long, cascading waves on blond hair. Gone are those days as well.
“I cut it all off in February of last year,” he says. “I’d been thinking about doing it for awhile. I was working on learning the acoustic guitar track to Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Rain Song,’ listening to it over and over. When it came on one more time, it somehow signaled that it was the right time to do it.”
One of many videos on Greenberg’s “ProducedByCDG” link on YouTube (www.youtube.com/rokonstudio1) includes his pristine, solo instrumental, 12-string acoustic guitar performance of “The Rain Song,” captured at Studio 19 after those long blond locks had rained down onto the floor. It’s a rendition that wouldn’t sound out of place on the gorgeously orchestrated First Person. Greenberg’s current project, the original trio Brash with guitarist Sean McMechen and drummer Eddie Gresely, is something completely different.
“When I was in my 20s in New York, I was a thrash metal musician,” Greenberg says. “Like ‘First Person,’ it’s a different side of me that I also rediscovered during COVID. I still write material in that vein, even if what we’re doing now isn’t exactly thrash, but it’s still heavy and progressive music. Sean lives in New Jersey, so I record my vocals and bass with a click track, then Eddie records the drums at Studio 19 before we send the tracks to Sean to record his parts remotely. We’ll also release videos of each performance, from both studios, along with interviews.”
As far as current live performances go, Greenberg’s prime gig is The ShinDig. A shape-shifting unit that can go up to four pieces for gigs through the tri-county area into the Florida Keys, it’s predominantly his longtime duo with Strong in which Greenberg plays acoustic guitar and a foot-played percussive cajon.
“I used to do backing vocals with Sami,” he says, “but not anymore. I look at myself more as an accompanist with her than as a guitar player, and feel like I can do so much more of that without the vocal harmonies. And she’s great. She really doesn’t need them. We’ve built up a lot of chemistry over almost 13 years. We play cover songs, but we make them our own.”
“I’ve never met anyone so completely immersed in music,” says Strong. “Cliff is music. He’s found some way to mix music into life lessons and be the sage in our circle. Every moment is a soundtrack; every object is an instrument that holds his attention and affection. And I get the best seat in the house every time.”
Versatile in all endeavors, Greenberg wakes up at 6 a.m. most weekdays to get his sons (16-year-old Gabriel and 12-year-old Noah) to school before starting his rinse-lather-repeat routine of teaching, recording, production, practice, filming and live gigs.
“Unless I’m teaching at Paideia, I work on various things before my adult student lessons start at 11 a.m. or noon,” he says. “There’s time to get more recording and production work in before picking up the kids at school at 2:45 p.m. Then it’s back to studio activities, conveniently located only steps away from my home, and maybe a live show. I have all these clients coming to Studio 19 who want tracks built around what they’re doing, plus production, and I can either play or program the instruments they need. It’s not making me rich by any means, but I earn enough to continue doing what I want to do.”
Such musical multitasking here in the tourism-based Sunshine State is rare and essential for any songwriting musician who wants to earn a living exclusively through his or her craft. All of which makes Greenberg, like Fonsi says in those Ford commercials, perfect for South Florida.
If You Go
See The ShinDig from 4-8 p.m. July 14 at the Rhum Shak, 802 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach (561-755-7486, www.rhumshaklwbeach.com), 7:30-10:30 p.m. July 20 at Cugini Wine Bar & Art Gallery, 804 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach (814-424-4789, cuginiwinebarartgallery.com), and 9 p.m.-midnight July 26 (and the last Friday of each month) at Paddy Mac’s, 10971 Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens (561-691-4366, paddymacirishpub.com).