Somedays the Song Writes You

Guy Clark didn't write "If I Needed You" but otherwise you sounded like you knew what you were talking about!

It's as good as they say, thats what I say!

Guy Clark's songs feel as good to me today as when I first heard him back in Houston in the late '60s... The Jester, Sand Mountain... Maybe even better with time. In those days we could hear, live, close-up and in person, Guy Clark... Townes... Mance Lipscomb, Lightin' Hopkins, at different places all in the same night...

For a songwriter with such a body of work and great reputation, this album has energy and effort. It is a reminder that there was a day when musicians put together albums that had feeling, purpose and unity. Mr. Clark tries to remind us that there is reason to listen to a whole album when written well. The first song displays why folks like Guy as he crafts word together in a confession of his work and his bit of fun of juxtaposing the album title and song title against each other. "The Guitar" and "Eamon" are two ballads showing Mr. Clark's ability to tell a story with "The Guitar" a little more approachable. "Hemingway's Whiskey" is a story of the temptations in hard times. He spins the blues with a Texas country feel on "All she wants is you" and "One Way Ticket Down." "Hollywood" is another swipe at Los Angeles, a little more bitter than his well known LA Freeway. It is reminscent of "Tornado Time in Texas." He sings of love and invites you to sing along with him, "If I needed of you." It is about sweet and sentimental as Guy Clark can get. "Wrong Side of the Tracks" is another fun upbeat song about when cultures meet in the night, how fun and dangerous it can be. It is a trip of blues, songwriting, romance, and great stories in song. The album ends with "Maybe I Can Paint Over That" leaves the listener with a powerful exit and reminder that this album was one great trip.

From the first strains of the first track, I was enchanted. The album is an acoustical delight, and Clark's lyrics are musical poetry. Magical.

The songwriter’s craft of juxtaposing words to describe a person, scene or situation or to communicate a feeling is only the surface of a process that starts deep within. The ability to step outside one’s own moment to describe what’s happening or happened, to recognize, observe and frame an experience in which one may be an active participant, is the more ephemeral side of songwriting. It’s something that few do as well as Guy Clark, and married to finely selected words, his songs provide uncommonly detailed and communicative windows into moments and people who might otherwise pass unobserved. In the title song, Clark addresses the alchemical process of songwriting. He notes that songs often appear to songwriters from thin air to exert themselves into being. But with a writer of Clark’s caliber, years of practice has left him open to divine these works, to snatch a moment of consciousness out of the rushing river of living. On “Hemingway’s Whiskey” he communes writer to writer about the debilitating muse, offering a personal glimpse into the pain of writing, and a picture of drinking as a chronic enabler rather than the classic reactive salve to lost love. Clark is equally effective sketching the seedy side of town, conjuring the scene of a seafarer’s final voyage, and animating a pawn shop guitar. The latter’s twist ending is laid in a lovely flurry of acoustic finger picking. The album is filled with lush acoustic playing from Clark and Verlon Thompson, and the rhythms of Kenny Malone (drums) and Bryn Davies (bass) provide a stable but subtle bottom end. Clark’s voice has weathered over the years, and though it’s never been the prettiest or most melodic instrument, it’s filled with emotion, particularly when covering his late friend Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You.” His co-writes with Rodney Crowell, Shawn Camp, Gary Nicholson, as well as several up-and-coming writers, bring together two generations of his disciples. Clark’s long been a “songwriter’s songwriter,” but he’s never stopped working on his craft, and the results are plain to hear on this latest release. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

I'm sure I have only scratched the surface of this album by listening to it twice. Absolutely beautiful.