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Guy Clark's Bio:

Guy Clark stands tall among Texas singer /songwriters. He has the respect and admiration of peers and fans alike. He is known for intelligent, well-crafted lyrics with universal appeal across the genres. He has said, "One of the things I've always tried to do is make sure the lyrics work on paper, without the music."

Released in October 2001, Bluebird Cafe put together a live album featuring Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt. See the Bluebird Cafe site for information. The album was recorded during a benefit in 1995 and contains 16 songs.

Cold Dog Soup, released in 1999, is his most recent album. Clark hasn't released a large number of albums since his 1975 debut with Old No. 1, but what he lacks in quantity he more than makes up for in quality.

Clark works slowly and with strict attention to detail, but he has produced an impressive collection of timeless gems, leaving very little waste behind. He approaches writing music the way writers of a literary nature approach writing. He has the writer's habit of scribbling phrases and ideas for songs on whatever scrap of paper is at hand.

Raised in Monahans, Texas, the first songs Clark learned were mostly in Spanish. Later, he moved to Houston and began working the folk-music circuit, where he met fellow songwriters Townes Van Zandt and blues singers Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. It was here that Clark began playing and writing his sturdy brand of folk- and blues-influenced country music. His friendship with Van Zandt was a lasting influence and the two often appeared on the same stage together.

Craftsman, 1995, contains the complete albums Guy Clark, The South Coast of Texas, and Better Days in a two CD set, which makes it a great buy for anyone who hasn't already got a good start on a Guy Clark collection.

His songs, "Desperados Waiting For A Train," "Heartbroke," "She's Crazy For Leavin" and "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" scored hits for a host of country artists.

User: hitech

Guy Clark's Albums
A Little on the CD Side Volume 17
Old No. 1
Unconditionally Guaranteed Volume 5 - Uncut"s Guide to the Month"s Best Music
Texas Cooking
Merlefest Live! The Best of 2003
All American Country
Texas Cookin"
The Dark

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
The highest praise Guy Clark can hear about one of his songs is that his album-opening Mud could pass for the bluesy philosophizing of Townes Van Zandt. Clark additionally pays tribute to his late songwriting buddy by covering Van Zandts Rexs Blues while the closing title track brings this song cycle full circle thematically. Though not all the material has the depth of those three standouts Clarks weathered vocals benefit from the recordings organic interplay of acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings providing guest support on Arizona Star. Magnolia Wind finds plain-spoken poetry in the lilt of a country waltz while Bag of Bones suggests that few writers are better than Clark at evoking folks on the verge of falling apart but somehow holding things together. While much of IThe Dark finds Clark slipping into some pretty familiar grooves the collaboration with Terry Allen on Queenies Song refutes the adage that you cant teach old dogs new tricks. Don McLeese
Old No. 1/Texas Cookin
The Essential
Together at the Bluebird Café

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
On September 13 1995 this like-minded triumvirate of country-folk singer-songwriters joined forces for a good old-fashioned song swap. The musics warmth and relaxed vibe make it sound like it was recorded on someones back porch in Texas as opposed to Nashvilles Bluebird Café. Pulled together for an Interfaith Dental Clinic benefit by Guy Clarks wife Susanna the three old friends sing songs and tell stories in an intimate acoustic-and-a-stool atmosphere in front of an appreciative audience--what more can you ask for when you have such compelling songwriters? The ravenous cult fans of these artists will want to add these delightful performances to their collections but newcomers will get an engaging and useful primer on the modern Texas troubadour style. Marc Greilsamer
Old No. 1/Texas Cookin"

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
Guy Clark is a Texan alt-country legend a craftsman of songs whose body of work never met with much commercial success. Influenced heavily by folk blues friend to the great Townes Van Zandt Lightnin Hopkins Mance Lipscomb. This exclusive 20 track package features his first only two RCA albums Old #1 (1975) Texas Cookin (1976) on the one CD. Camden. 1998.


Guy Clark Album Editorial:
Great Two on One Compilation of the Texas Master Poets Early Albums.
Cold Dog Soup

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
If this front-porchy set disappoints its only because as dean of singer-songwriters Guy Clark has established such imposing standards. Rather than offering the exacting patient craftsmanship weve come to expect many of these new tunes feel like playful ephemera the result of a friendly all-night song swap--though it hardly hurts if your friends include Emmylou Harris Verlon Thompson and Darrell Scott. Closer inspection however reveals a more serious purpose. Starting with Steve Earles Fort Worth Blues through Water Under the Bridge (in which all things pass away) on to Richard Dobsons Forever for Always for Certain a recognition of the tricks that time can play ICold Dog Soup is suffused with visions of mortality. The album ends with three exquisite hymns to life in the face of death. In Red River Clark celebrates his family history; in Die Tryin life is defined as risk; and in Be Gone Forever penned by Anna McGarrigle and Keith Sykes Clark finds consolation in memory and music. Even if much of ICold Dog Soup isnt up to Clarks best this closing autumnal suite played with devil-may-care élan and joy certainly is. Roy Kasten
Keepers

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
Guy Clark approaches songwriting the same way he approaches fishing--if what he comes up with is too meager he throws it back; only the best specimens are considered keepers. Fifteen of those specimens are featured on IKeepers--A Live Recording (Sugar Hill) which was taped at a Nashville club in 1996 on Halloween weekend. Two strong songs are unveiled--A Little of Both a bouncy witty song about avoiding choices and Out in the Parking Lot a slow poignant look at the action outside a nightclub. These two are joined by 13 old favorites including those turned into hits by Ricky Skaggs (Heartbroke) Jerry Jeff Walker (L.A. Freeway) and Johnny Cash (The Last Gunfighter Ballad). Theyre all wonderful songs but these arent necessarily the best versions. Clark is a limited singer but his voice cracks more than usual on several of these live renditions; this version of She Aint Goin Nowhere is practically unlistenable. Clark did put together a sharp little band for this recording but if he was going to make a live album why didnt he deliver some of his long droll stories rather than these truncated introductions? Geoffrey Himes
The Essential Guy Clark

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
Despite the misleading title this collection is actually a straight (albeit reordered) reissue of Clarks first two records: 1975s landmark debut IOld No. 1 and ITexas Cookin from the following year. Only one song from the latter title is missing replaced by the Fools for Each Other single from 1978. Though he was in his early 30s when he recorded IOld No. 1 Clarks keen world-weary tales (and equally worn voice) belie his age. With simple arrangements and richly detailed narratives the record has an air of resignation and melancholy yet somehow manages to be comforting and uplifting. ITexas Cookin is a fine follow-up but despite a number of high-profile guests it never truly reaches the heights of its predecessor. Together however they form quite an impressive body of original songs especially for only one years worth of recording. Marc Greilsamer
Craftsman

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
On the great continuum of tough-but-smart hard-but-sensitive country-western singer-songwriters Guy Clark cut his notch after Jimmy Rogers Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and before Roseanne Cash Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett. Making a name more from his pen than his voice Clark is cut from the same sun-parched and wind-chapped Texas realm that yielded Townes Van Zandt. And with a hint of a bohemian (if not quite hippie) sensibility mixed in with his L.A./Nashville new country glide Clarks work suggests what might have come from Gram Parsons had he survived the 70s. Craftsman is a 2 CD reissue comprised of three consecutive records Clark laid down for Warner Brothers between 1978 and 1983: IGuy Clark IThe South Coast of Texas and IBetter Days. The entire trilogymines a hefty 30 songs from Clarks most prolific and most successful period as a recording artist. For those who came to country on the Garth Brooks wave ICraftsman sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday or for that matter forty years ago. Theres bits of all country flavors on ICraftsman: from the Jimmy Buffett easy adult sounds of Crowells Voilà An American Dream to the dry and scathing late-Dylanisms of Fool on the Roof Blues the country of The Houston Kid and the elegant western pop of Fools For Each Other and Shade Of All Greens. No adolescent angst here Craftsman is for listeners whove already grown up. Roni Sarig
Dublin Blues

Guy Clark Album Editorial:
Guy Clark is a slow worker. IDublin Blues is only his seventh album since his debut Old No. 1 appeared in 75. The silver-haired Texan has praised the patient meticulous process of hands-on craftmanship in songs like The Carpenter Boats to Build and Jack of All Trades and obviously applies the same approach to his own songwriting. The time is well spent for this batch of songs resembles fine furniture; the words and music fit together so precisely that theres nary a seam nor a wobble. Clarks limitations are the same as ever. The cramped dimensions of his vocal tone and range make Johnny Cash sound like Luciano Pavarotti and his easy-going clip-clop midtempo rhythms are too unvarying for their own good. Admiring friends such as Nanci Griffith Emmylou Harris Kathy Mattea and Sam Bush make the harmonies surrounding Clark especially rich on Dublin Blues and Ramblin Jack Elliott (the subject of an earlier Clark song) sings a duet vocal on Hangin Your Life on the Wall a defiant anthem on old folks who refuse to slow down. The heart of any Guy Clark album though is the writing and the writing on IDublin Blues is the work of a dogged perfectionist. Geoffrey Himes
Old Friends
Boats to Build

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