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 Rodney Crowell, George Strait, Vince Gill, Alan go on to have important country music careers. Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Kenny Chesney.

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

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