Kevin Bronson on January 28th, 2020

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The announcement of the new album from cult heroes Clem Snide comes with this declaration from songwriter Eef Barzelay: “That this record even exists, as far as I’m concerned, is a genuine miracle.” Yes, such missives are given to hyperbole, but Barzelay’s words ring true.

To backtrack: Clem Snide began in the late 1990s and over seven albums in 12 years — plus other work that included Barzelay’s brilliant 2008 solo album “Lose Big” — built a small, devoted following. Straddling the line between folk/alt-country and indie rock, Barzelay weaves sad, haunting narratives in his crooning and sometimes wobbly voice. And he is the kind of lyricist who can turn a smile to tears in the space of a couplet.

When Buzz Bands LA interviewed Barzelay in 2010 for the (also brilliant) album “The Meat of Life,” his life was beginning to unravel. “About 10 years ago, everything just seemed to fall apart,” he says now. “The band bottomed out, my marriage was crumbling, I lost my house, and I had to declare bankruptcy. That started this process of ego death for me, where I realized the only way to survive would be to transcend myself and to try to find some kind of deeper, spiritual relationship with life and with being. Once I committed myself to that, miraculous things started to happen.”

In the years that followed, Barzelay subsisted on solo work. He wrote songs commissioned by fans. He wrote songs specifically for those who subscribed to his VIP program on Bandcamp. He did house concerts.

There were small signs, though. A superfan in Spain sent Barzelay an unsolicited donation that covered the amount he owed his bankruptcy lawyer, for instance. And about four or five years ago, a fan passed along a video of Scott Avett singing a Clem Snide song. Another fan sent an interview in which Avett raved about Clem Snide’s music.

“I had just hit this low point where I realized I couldn’t do it alone anymore,” Barzelay says. “I passed along a little message and a new song I wrote to the Avett Brothers’ manager, and Scott wrote me right back to say what a fan he was.”

“I look up to Eef with total respect and admiration,” Avett says, “and I hope to survive like he survives: with total love for the new and the unknown. Eef’s a crooner and an indie darling by sound and a mystic sage by depth. That’s not common, but it’s beautiful.”

And so the seeds were sown for Clem Snide’s new album “Forever Just Beyond,” due March 27. Produced by Avett, the album features a backing band including bassist Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses, Lissie) and drummer Mike Marsh (The Avett Brothers, Dashboard Confessional), along with contributions from Old Crow Medicine Show fiddler Ketch Secor and Avett Brothers cellist Joe Kwon.

Avett contributes harmonies to the album’s lead track, “Roger Ebert,” a poignant meditation built around the final words of the late film critic. It’s a little miracle itself, every word of it.

||| Stream: “Robert Ebert”