Born in Monahans, Texas on November 6, 1941, Guy Clark began taking guitar lessons at age 12. His father's law partner taught him to play his first songs, most of which were in Spanish, on a $12 Mexican guitar. Early in his music career, Clark bounced from Houston to San Francisco, then to Los Angeles, where he had a job as a luthier at the Dopyera Brothers' Dobro factory, before finally relocating to Nashville in 1971 to sign a publishing deal with RCA subsidiary Sudbury Music. His first brush with success came two years later, when a fellow Texas native, Jerry Jeff Walker, scored a radio hit with "LA Freeway," a song in which he expressed his frustration over the Los Angeles lifestyle. Soon thereafter, Walker released another successful album that included another of Clark's "Desperados Waiting for a Train."
These two songs served as a preview of great things to come for Guy Clark, whose circle of groundbreaking singer-songwriters included Rodney Crowell, Billy Joe Shaver, and Townes Van Zandt, among others. Clark's home, which he shared with his wife, Susanna – a talented songwriter in her own right – became something of an open house for Nashville's upper echelon of writers and musicians. He was critically acclaimed (if not wildly successful on the charts) as a recording artist; but it was as a songwriter that Clark truly excelled. His tunes have been covered by myriad artists, including (but by no means limited to), Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Asleep at the Wheel, Vince Gill, the Highwaymen, John Conlee, and Jimmy Buffett.
Guy Clark Discography |
