It's been a long (really long) time since my last review. Indeed I've been busy with another project you can check it right here. If you can speak french you will enjoy it. But let's get back to what we care about now, a piece of art from one of the most talented songwriter this world has given to us : Mr Guy Clark.
His latest album, the ninth one, is called My Favorite Picture Of You and it is so soul-moving that is from this kind of record only a master of his kind can produce. Even if his talent for songwriting is well recognized by every connoisseur, lots of people don't know that he was behind big success from George Strait, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs and even Johnny Cash. By the way, in the first record of The Highwaymen, the super-band with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, the main song "Desperados Waiting From A Train" is a cover of Guy Clark.
Though his new record is dedicated to his wife, Susanna Clark who passed away in 2012. She shared his life for 40 years. It was in the 60's, after Clark departure from Texas to California, that he met her in San Francisco and then they moved to Nashville. We can see on the cover of the record the picture he talks about. It was taken a day when he and his pal, the well-known Townes Van Zandt, were at home and quite drunk. Susanna entered and find them this way and were so angry she goes out. Guy Clark has this power to take out from this picture all the love he has for her. A wise spirit and a precise eye able to look at the small things and show how beautiful they could be, and finally are.
This is the true power of the poet. He's able to look deeper and show us the world in a more sensitive way. It's all about natural feeling, human kind, love and simplicity. Even the music is soft. It doesn't try to come to us or to show us how this or that is sad, happy or true. Some right guitar chords are efficient enough and the nice melodies are obviously what they should be. It shows what I call "the obvious of Folk Music". Like nature it's simple but we would never imagine the forests and the mountains on another spot, everything is where it has to be.
Songs like the beautiful and so true "Heroes" about war veterans or "My Favorite Picture Of You" are just small samples of a gigantic record that speaks directly to our heart. Like every record of Guy Clark, this one must be listen and enjoyed like a fine whisky.
