The Clendenen Brothers Can’t Lose For Winning
“Can’t win for losing” is a curious phrase of the English language. With a documented history of over a century, it is often found in close proximity to sports or gambling. But Nate Clendenen, in the immaculate bluegrass trappings of the Clendenen Brothers, sees life’s setbacks leading to some place worth going in his single “Win for Losing.”
Clendenen plays guitar on this song and is joined by a stellar band of local bluegrass titans: Sam Guthridge on banjo, Johnny Calamari Lanehart on bass and backing vocals, Jody Mosser on dobro, and Patrick McAvinue on fiddle. After a lonesome, mixolydian banjo and fiddle intro, the song’s groove commences, punctuated by free-flowing fiddle. The chorus is built around a descending scalar pattern across the subtonic chord, and is set apart by a catchy hook with great harmony vocals. Unsurprisingly for anyone familiar with the musicians in this lineup, the instrumental solos are flawless.
Bluegrass has strong roots in Maryland: Hazel Dickens called Baltimore home for many formative years, and both the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene are associated with DC, but held rehearsals in Maryland. Even today, Del McCoury’s annual DelFest bluegrass festival draws fans from throughout the region. Clendenen is no stranger to these facts, nor these places. It’s likely no coincidence that there’s something incredibly Marylandian about this song. The poetry begins in coastal Maryland with rain on the ocean and waves in the dark, but within a few lines there’s wind blowing “hard from the west” and suddenly the state’s mountainous western region is just as present. The accompaniment too pairs a ‘’hard drivin’’ mountain sound with an easy going beach town feel.
Clendenen handles the theme with the deftness of a great songwriter. The narrator’s confidence that he will someday “win for losing” isn’t ever clearly spelled out or justified, and the listener is given the same clues – that the speaker has to try and make sense of the way fate or destiny might unfold. The dog barking in the darkness points to an intuition of something just beyond perception. The response to the cold wind is a two-fold declaration: “Honey, I'm coming to you. Honey, I'm going to be your best.” Verse two adds more context as he sings “every road I've ever been down… has led me straight to you” and “I'm just trying to do something real… to give a strong ship its course.”
What will be the reason that he finally wins? Clendenen never says outright. Maybe it’s trial and error, or steady improvement over time. Maybe it’s a matter of luck or the inevitable effect of loving the right person. Either way there’s no saying for sure and he doesn’t try. In this song, that hope is just a steady feeling, coming in like “waves… from the dark.”
“Win For Losing” was released on May 2nd, 2025 by Waiting for Lester Records.