The King of the Texas Troubadours (Dualtone, 2017)
Guy Clark
Reviewed by Dan MacIntosh
Clark, the consummate songwriter, pays tribute to fellow master Townes Van Zandt by covering his love ballad "If I Needed You." But Clark was not known as an interpreter, and one called "The Guitar" gives insight into the musician/songwriter's life. This lyric about a pawnshop guitar includes the lines, "It was getting hard to tell just who was playing who." Creating music was in Clark's DNA, and writing songs likely came as naturally as playing this found guitar. But it was likely never easy.
Clark's songs could also be highly personal, too. "My Favorite Picture of You," for example, was inspired by an actual Polaroid of his wife Susanna. It may not have been his wife's most flattering pose because she was captured looking angry about her husband's drunken antics. Even though it came with a curse on her lips, "beautiful" was all Clark could see. And as last pictures go, this 'best of' is a worthy overview album.
CDs by Guy Clark
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