BIOGRAPHY: GUY CLARK

POETIC STORYTELLER

Guy Clark recorded more than a dozen studio albums, but he is best known as a gifted songwriter who was beloved by the country artists who sang his work. During the Outlaw era, his poetic storytelling helped inspire other rebel songwriters.

“It’s not brain surgery,” Clark said of songwriting. “It’s heart surgery.”

Born on November 6, 1941, in the west Texas town of Monahans, Clark spent much of his childhood at his grandmother’s thirteen-room hotel. After college, he settled in Houston, where he opened a guitar repair shop and began performing folk music in clubs. That’s where he formed lifelong friendships with Mickey Newbury, K.T. Oslin, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Townes Van Zandt, who would all go on to have important country music careers.

In 1971, Clark moved to Nashville with his soon-to-be wife, Susanna, to join a group of young country singer-songwriters who became known Over the years, Clark continued to record and for their poetic storytelling. Together, the Clarks perform in clubs and small theaters around the created a home that attracted this new music country. At home in Nashville, he spent long hours community. Van Zandt especially had a unique building guitars in his basement workshop. bond with the couple. In 2004, he was elected to the Nashville In 1975, Clark released his debut album, Songwriters Hall of Fame. The next year, he Old No. 1, and it included what is regarded as one received a lifetime achievement award for of his masterpieces, “Desperados Waiting for a songwriting from the Americana Music Association. Train,” inspired by an old man he met at He won a Grammy in 2014 for best folk album. his grandmother’s hotel. He died in 2016 in Nashville, at age seventy-four, Though Clark’s recordings didn’t make a splash after a lengthy battle with cancer. on country radio, his songs found huge audiences Three years before, singer John Hiatt predicted through the major artists who recorded them, his friend’s music would always live on. “Guy is the including Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris kind of writer who is too strong to fade out,” Hiatt Kristofferson, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, said. “His songs will remain long after he does. Rodney Crowell, George Strait, Vince Gill, Alan They get in your heart and mind, and they Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Kenny Chesney. become part of you.”

SOURCES LISTEN American Songwriter, Austin American-Statesman, “Shade of All Greens” The New York Times, The Tennessean

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