ABOUT
Ten Ton Flood is the song collaborations of Romin Dawson and Steven Fink
In early 1991, Steven Fink showed up on Romin Dawson’s doorstep with everything he owned, ready for a musical adventure. What transpired since then has been an ongoing, ever evolving, creative collaboration and friendship that continues to this day. Steven joined The Grapes - at the time an up and coming, pioneering Atlanta based jam band that Romin co-founded - as a keyboard player, vocalist and songwriter. Over the years, they wrote, performed, and toured the country together - sharing many life-changing experiences and passing many milestones along the way. Although they disbanded some time ago, The Grapes still reunite periodically for venue packing shows that have become much beloved and anticipated events for legions of devoted followers of all ages and walks of life. In the late summer of 2020, Steven and Romin began a dynamic new songwriting project called Ten Ton Flood - infused with all of the knowledge, wisdom, and love for life that can only come from living it to the fullest for decades. We hope you will enjoy it, share it, sing it, play it, dance to it, and become a part of our community.
Artwork and logo: Jason Clements
Ship in a Bottle Artwork: JT Lucchesi
Credits
Jason Clements - Song Art
Ten Ton Flood songs are highly visual in nature, and easily conjure up moods and images as the music and lyrics unfold. So, naturally, another great element of this project is visual art. Traditionally, bands incorporate art for logos, albums, posters, apparel and other merchandise. With this project, each and every song gets its own visual representation.
Jason Clements was born and raised in Valdosta, GA. He started drawing and painting when he was in elementary school - inspired and encouraged by his mother, also an artist. With this interest and foundation, he later enrolled in the fine arts program at Valdosta State University, earning a BFA - with a focus on graphic design. It was at college that he first saw and fell in love with the Grapes. They were routinely playing in Valdosta and had generated a large following and vibrant social scene, which Jason became a part of. He moved to Atlanta in 1997 and got a job as a graphic designer at the corporate headquarters of Home Depot.
He immersed himself in the music scene in Atlanta, was a regular at Grapes shows, and became good friends with Romin. He also connected with another artist, J.T. Luchessi, currently of Home Team Graphics - and the recent creator of the Ten Ton Flood logo. J.T. asked Jason to join him in contributing artwork for Widespread Panic. Soon Jason was creating art for their posters, logos, stickers, t-shirts and albums. It wasn’t long before his exceptional artistic talent was recognized and put into action by others. He became sought after, and was recruited to create designs for many musical artists - including Peter Rowan, Burning Spear, Willie Nelson, Jerry Joseph and the Jack Mormons, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Colonel Bruce Hampton, String Cheese Incident, Carl Denson’s Tiny Universe, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
He was also called upon by filmmaking brothers Geoffrey and Christopher Hanson to create the poster art for their rockumentary, The Earth Will Swallow You, about Widespread Panic and their Summer 2000 tour.
Later, Jason created art for Romin’s previous musical group, Wayside Riders. He did several Grapes reunion show posters as well, and recently designed a new logo for the 30th anniversary reissue of their first album, ‘Water To Wine.”
Jason’s decades-long friendship and collaboration with Romin, along with Romin’s highly visual approach to lyricism, make him the unique and obvious choice to create song art for Ten Ton Flood. As with the creative energy between Romin and Steven, Jason’s long, rich history and association brings a knowing eye to this work, and a synergy that would not be present otherwise. While Jason has created for many, many music projects in the forms of posters, logos, and album art, this is the first time he has created song art - and nobody is better suited for this monumental undertaking. Like all of the participants and supporters of Ten Ton Flood, Jason is embracing it with the utmost of inspiration and energy. His love for music, and the amazing collaboration between Romin and Steven, could not be more pure, and he is excited to be a part of this adventure - wherever it goes.
Jason continues to work in graphic design at Home Depot as a Visual Merchandise Manager - conveniently living in the same neighborhood as Romin - with his wife of almost 20 years, Cathy, a speech therapist - and their 16 year old daughter, Dylan Rose.