Guy Clark – Americana UK

Has Guy Clark ever recorded a bad song or released an unlistenable album? Certainly not. Why you might be wondering about including his catalog in this series? That’s because Guy Clark was a recognized songwriter who was a major influence on the Texas Troubadour tradition, providing songs for the emerging folk-country sounds of new roots music that emerged in the ’70s and eventually led to what became today is called Americana, before he released his major label debut for the RCA branch in Nashville. This meant he had ten years to hone his songwriting skills and build an impressive catalog of songs before he had to pay too much attention to the recorded sound.

Looking at various polls and lists, including Americana UK’s, the general consensus is that Guy Clark’s 1975 debut album “Old No. 1“, is probably his best. This view is based on the unparalleled songs contained within, including “LA Freeway” And ‘“Desperados waiting for a train”and what influence it had. However, it is very difficult to argue this “Old No. 1” Although not Clark’s best collection of individual songs, this feature argues that it is not the best representative example of him as an overall artist. When he was signed to RCA, he was assigned producer Mike Lipskin, who recorded “Clark” with the Memphis Boys and various Muscle Shoals musicians. While RCA was happy with the recording and believed it would fit the then current Nashville sound, Guy Clark felt it was too country and not representative of him and refused to release the record. This presented him with a problem as most of the recording budget had been used up, so he went into the studio with his friend Neil Wilburn and his demo tracks and added parts with the help of various friends such as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell.

The RCA version of “Old No. 1” was never released and although Guy Clark and Neil Wilburn’s version was a huge critical success, that success could not be achieved commercially, something the RCA version might have remedied. This tension between the way Clark viewed himself as an artist and the commercial expectations that major labels had of their artists was a feature of his early career. He left RCA after his second album, 1976 “Texas Cookin’” He then moved to Warner Bros. for three albums, which again enjoyed critical success but failed to meet the label’s commercial expectations, before signing with Barry Poss’ Sugar Hill label. When Guy Clark came to Sugar Hill, he knew who he was as an artist and the sound he wanted, and the label was more than willing to help him achieve his artistic goals, so much so that the relationship between Clark and Sugar Hill came into being. The symbiosis with Clark helped the label define its ethos as both an Americana and bluegrass label in the ’90s. Clark left the label when Barry Poss resigned as president in 2002 after selling the label to Welk Music Group in 1998. Sugar Hill live album, 1997 “Keeper” contains versions of many of Guy Clark’s greatest early songs in versions that Clark himself reportedly preferred to the original recordings from the ’70s and early ’80s.

As always with features like this, it’s good to hear what readers think. Do you agree or disagree with the opinions expressed in the future? So don’t be shy with your comments.

I can’t live with this: “Guy Clark” (1978)

Let’s be clear from the start, “Guy Clark” is not an album I can’t live with as it has some merits, and any Guy Clark fan should at least hear it, but I think it’s his worst album overall, even if it shows some of his development as an overall artist. Guy Clark left RCA because they wanted to sell him to the country music audience of the time, which he didn’t want to cooperate with. His reputation as a songwriter was such that Warner Bros. had no qualms about signing him. While the label may have seemed hipper than RCA since it was based in Los Angeles and released the solo albums of Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell in 1978; However, Guy Clark’s records were managed by the company’s Nashville division and were still aimed at the country music audience of the time.

Warner Bros. was keen to release a Guy Clark product, which was a bit of a problem as it was lacking new songs at the time. Clark produced the sessions for what later became “Guy Clark” with Neil Wilburn, and they brought with them members of Willie Nelson’s band, Bee Spears and Mickey Raphael, Albert Lee of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band, and various musicians from Memphis and Nashville, as guests Rodney Crowell and his girlfriend Kay Oslin, later better known as KT Oslin. The sound was much richer than the acoustic folk sound of his later career and included not only many musicians but also instruments such as a cello. The lack of original songs was addressed by the inclusion of four cover versions. According to Clark, this was the first album where he really paid attention to how his vocals sounded and how they were recorded.

The album starts with “Fool on the Roof” and ends with a guitar piece “Fool On The Roof Blues”which is a nice reminder that the blues had a big influence on Clark. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded Clark’s “Comfortable and crazy” before Clark recorded it for this album. Clark himself said he didn’t think he would have ever played the song live because it didn’t feel complete. “Fools for each other” was written about his wife Susanna and this was probably the best known track on the album as it was released as a single and subsequently successfully covered by Johnny Rodriguez and Ed Bruce as a duet with Lynn Anderson. Clark’s time in Houston is the inspiration for “Houston Kid”And “Shades of all shades of green” shows that Clark’s wit is still alive.

The covers include Jimmie Rodgers’ “Now in prison” which was a staple of Clark’s live show. They were joined by Rodney Crowell “Voila, an American dream.”and Walter Cowarts “A paper child” which was first covered by Emmylou Harris “Quarter Moon in a Dime Town.”“. The cover was by Townes Van Zandt “Don’t take it too badly”.

Warner Bros. released the album without any real promotion and it barely resonated with the label’s perceived target audience. Guy Clark’s two subsequent Warner Bros. albums continued to show his search for his true sound and contained better songs, and both were produced by Rodney Crowell. 1981s “The South Coast of Texas” is a very good album with a great collection of songs and a sound from Crowell that was similar to what he brought to the bank with his then wife Roseanne Cash and 1984 “Better Days” saw a trend towards a more folk-based sound and included the first versions of “The Randall Knife” And “Home-grown tomatoes”.

You can’t live without it: “The Darkness” (2002)

“The Darkness” was Guy Clark’s final record for Sugar Hill and is his best overall recording for the label. Although Clark continued to write great songs and record excellent albums for Dualtone Records until his death, his age and health probably meant that he never quite matched the overall quality of Dualtone Records.The Darkness”taking in the songs, the performance and the production, making it, to these ears, his most representative work as an overall artist. He is joined by his regular band from the era of Darrell Scott, Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp, as well as guests Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, on an album that represents a first for Guy Clark-writes, with the exception of the obligatory Townes Van Zandt covers.

The songs on the album are very much in the tradition of Texas storytelling and the overall impression is perhaps a little darker than we are used to from Guy Clark. Apparently it took Clark fifteen years to write a song with Buddy Mondlock, and then he wrote two, the opening track ‘Dirt’ and the title track. ‘Dirt’ uses mud as a metaphor for life itself and the title track “The Darkness” is not as bleak as it might seem at first. Clark and Shawn Camp continue the story “Sister Draper”first started on “Cold dog soup”with “Magnolia Wind” And “Solder’s Joy, 1864”a song about Sister Draper’s feathering great-great-grandfather. During one of his visits with Terry Allen, Allen told him that someone had shot his dog, and the couple wrote to him “Queenie’s Song” to preserve the incident for posterity. Clark claims that the inspiration for the story song was given “Arizona Star”written with Rich Alves, was a real woman from his early days in Nashville. Two songs were written with Clark’s neighbor, noted lyricist Steve Nelson. “Dance Days” And “Off the map”. Simplicity can be a powerful songwriting tool when used correctly, and that’s exactly what Guy Clark and Ray Stephenson achieve ‘Homeless’ with Guy Clark’s spoken texts. The diversity that Guy Clark was able to achieve through collaboration with other authors is clear “She loves riding horses”written with Keith Sykes about Sykes’ wife, and “Bag of Bones”written with Gary Nicholson about Nicholson’s father. True to his own tradition, Clark adds his version of Townes Van Zandts “Rex’s Blues”which was a personal favorite.

The acoustic arrangements and the sound continue “The Darkness” are the perfect framework for Guy Clark’s songs, the musicians are almost telepathic in their playing and Clark’s singing is probably the best of his career. Some people may think that the fact that this is Clark’s first album to not contain solo songs means that it can’t be his best album, but we have to remember that every album he recorded after that, too No solo songs were written. Guy Clark himself said that co-writing helps take his songwriting to new and surprising places.

Finally, a little addendum about the album cover, which also fits perfectly with the overall feel of “The Darkness”. Guy Clark was also a well-known luthier and all guitars he made bear his signature and the bloody thumbprint that can be seen through the sound hole. He originally wanted to feature a photo of the sound hole of one of his guitars on the album cover, but Sugar Hill just wanted his bloody thumbprint on a black background. After an argument, Sugar Hill won and Guy Clark’s most representative and perfect album got its perfect cover.

Guy Clark is an artist whose catalog makes up for the effort of extensive research. Just because someone is a great songwriter doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a great recording artist, and Guy Clark, the great recording artist, took a while to come out of his chute. Not only did he have to find his own style and sound, but he also had to fight against his labels’ assumptions that he could sell into the mainstream country market. Sugar Hill gave Clark the freedom to truly be himself, and his presence on the label allowed him to thrive in the emerging Americana market, a perfect meeting of label and artist.

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