Jack Van Cleaf: 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

Jack Van Cleaf started writing songs when he was in high school in San Diego, and then he went on to study music at Belmont University in Nashville. Now based in Tennessee, the alt-country musician quickly found a supportive community of friends who would help him make his first album, Fruit from the Trees.

"Rattlesnake" from that record went viral and earned Van Cleaf praise from critics and fans —  including Grammy-winner Zach Bryan. In fact, Bryan loved the song so much that he reached out to Van Cleaf over Instagram and offered to fly him to New York to rerecord the track as a duet at Electric Lady Studios. "He has a great knack for just following creative impulses and making it fun in the studio," says Van Cleaf of Bryan.

That revised version of "Rattlesnake" is included on Van Cleaf's second album, JVC, a collection that also focuses on the struggle of young adulthood, the climate emergency ("Green") and more. In addition to Bryan, Gatlin is also a special guest on the record.

During our conversation, Van Cleaf chatted about writing and recording of this record and how that helped him move into this new phase of his life.

Joined by bandmates and what Van Cleaf calls his "friends for life"  — Ethan Fortenberry (guitar and banjo), Josh Warren (bass) and Aaron Krak (drums) — the quartet played three songs from JVC: a solo version of "Rattlesnake," "Green," and "Couch Potato."

[Recorded: 4/3/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman, Zack Tomassi, and Nadia Garriga; produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Olivia Iannaccone, Nikki Phillips, Lily Crean, Sophia Yoerks, and Vee Venning.]