Guy Clark, a light fades

These years are unfortunately full of heart-breaking music losses. Since our work here is to keep music alive across time and space, I do not systematically talk or write about great songwriters who passed away. I’m sure you can catch the news from another source anyway.

But sometimes it’s just impossible to stay still. Specifically when the artist is Guy Clark. At the age of 74, he died from a long illness on May 17^th 2016 in his Nashville home. To speak frankly, I do write about him because he was also one of my personal music heroes.

A lot of critics and music experts can tell you, despite the few airplays of his music, he was a milestone of Nashville songwriting scene. As a member of the Texan Troubadours, as we called them, Guy Clark and his friends (Townes Van Zandt in the very first place) had this way of telling moving stories with a disconcerting simplicity. But his writing was far from simple. He was obsessed with finding the right words and his songs are earthbound pieces of pure magic.

There’s a lot of archives you can hear and watch to know about his life, his work and his philosophy. If you're interested, take my advice and watch the James Szalapski’s documentary called Heartworn Highways. It’s a wonderful work showing the 70’s outlaw country music scene and it will give you an inside look at the Troubadours’ community life. 2016 is the 40^th anniversary of the film and you can find a special reissue at Light In The Attic Records. This new edition isn’t cheap but on another hand it’s kind of hard to find a good quality vintage copy. And you’d better have kept your old VHS player. But whatever the way you’ll choose, you definitely should watch this documentary to understand the spirit of Guy Clark’s work.

It may took until 2004 to see him elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, but Guy Clark’s songs engraved by themselves in our heart for quite a long time already. All his records deserve a close hearing, including his last work, My Favorite Picture Of You, a masterpiece which lead to a well-deserved Grammy for best folk album in 2014.

It’s because of artists like Guy Clark I decided I should spread the word and try to highlight good songwriters and musicians. American songwriting is a special form of poetry, full of truth, honesty and hard times. He knew how to depict those things in a most powerful and beautiful possible way.

The man is gone but his work will remain for sure. How could it be different?

Guy Clark, master of words

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.