Guy Charles
Clark
November 6,
1941 – Tuesday May 17, 2016
Grammy-winner, Nashville Songwriter
Hall of Fame member, Academy of Country Music Poet’s Award honoree, and
fearless raconteur Guy Charles Clark died Tuesday after a long illness. In this video The Tennessean announce Mr.Clarks passing:
He was born in the dusty west Texas town of Monahans on November 6, 1941. The family lived at his grandmother’s 13-room shotgun hotel; home to bomber pilots, drifters, oilmen and a wildcatter named Jack Prigg, the subject of Clark’s famous song “Desperados Waiting For A Train.” When Guy’s father returned from WWII and graduated from law school, the Clarks moved to the Gulf coast town of Rockport, Texas.
Photo:
Guy Clark Press Photo
Nashvilleportraits2016
Guy came of age in the pretty little beach town. As captain and center, Guy led the football team. He played guard in basketball, ran the 100-yard dash and threw discus in track and field. He won science fairs, joined the Explorer’s club, presided over the junior class as president, acted in school plays, excelled on the debate team, illustrated the yearbook, and fell in love with Mexican folk songs and the Flamenco guitar.
After a couple of false starts at university, Guy joined the Peace Corps in 1963. He trained in Rio Abajo, Puerto Rico, practicing water survival, rock climbing and trekking, followed by a month of book learning at the University of Minnesota. After turning down an assignment in Punjab, India, Guy moved to Houston, where he opened a guitar repair shop with his friend Minor Wilson. He played guitar and sang folk songs at the Houston Folklore Society, Sand Mountain coffee shop and the Jester Lounge, where he began life long friendships with fellow struggling songwriters and musicians Mickey Newbury, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kay Oslin, Frank Davis, Gary White and Crow Johnson.
He married his first wife, folksinger Susan Spaw, and they had a son Travis in 1966.
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| Guy Clark & Susanna share a moment- ExitIn (10 Dec 1975) |
In 1969, after splitting with
Susan, Guy moved to San Francisco and again joined Minor Wilson in a guitar
repair shop. Within a year, he moved back to Houston, met and fell in love with
a beautiful dark haired painter named Susanna
Talley. Susanna moved from Oklahoma City to Houston to be with Guy and
after a few months, she sold a painting to fund the couple’s move to Los
Angeles. Guy landed a job building Dobros at the Dopyera Brothers Original
Musical Instruments Company. He played with a bluegrass band on the weekends
and pitched his songs to publishing companies in between.
He signed a publishing deal with
Sunbury Dunbar and moved to Nashville in the fall of 1971. He and Susanna
crashed on songwriter Mickey Newbury’s houseboat for a few weeks and then moved
into a small rental house at 1307 Chapel Avenue in East Nashville. Guy
and Susanna returned to Newbury’s houseboat on January 14, 1972 along with
Mickey and Susan Newbury and Townes Van Zandt as best man; the five friends
sailed up the Cumberland River to the Sumner County Courthouse where Guy Clark
and Susanna Talley married.
In that first year in East
Nashville Susanna and Townes wrote “Heavenly Houseboat Blues,” while Guy turned
out “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “L.A. Freeway,” and “That Old Time
Feeling.” By the time Guy released Old No.1 (#41), his debut critically
acclaimed album for RCA Records in 1975, he had written several soon-to-be
classic songs including “She Ain’t Going Nowhere,” “Let Him Roll,” “Rita
Ballou,” and “Texas 1947.”
He jumped from RCA to Warner
Brothers in 1978, scoring a number one
song with Ricky Skaggs’s take on “Heartbroke”
in 1982 and breaking into the Billboard country chart with “Homegrown Tomatoes”
in 1983. Clark hit his stride when he signed with Sugar Hill Records in 1989,
and then released a string of significant folk and Americana albums with Sugar
Hill, Asylum Records and Dualtone Music Group during the next two-and-a-half
decades:
Old Friends, Boats to Build, Dublin Blues, Keepers, Cold Dog Soup, The Dark (#46 Top Country albums), Workbench Songs (#74), Somedays the Song Writes You (#59) and his final 2013 Grammy-winning Best Folk Album, MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF YOU (#12).
Old Friends, Boats to Build, Dublin Blues, Keepers, Cold Dog Soup, The Dark (#46 Top Country albums), Workbench Songs (#74), Somedays the Song Writes You (#59) and his final 2013 Grammy-winning Best Folk Album, MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF YOU (#12).
For more than forty years, the
Clark home was a gathering place for songwriters, folk singers, artists and
misfits; many who sat at the feet of the master songwriter in his element,
willing Guy’s essence into their own pens.
Throughout his long and
extraordinary career, Guy Clark blazed a trail for original and groundbreaking
artists and troubadours including his good friends Rodney Crowell, Jim McGuire,
Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp,
and Vince Gill.
THIS ONE'S FOR HIM: A Tribute to Guy Clark (Icehouse Music;
Amazon; Inlay), was
released Jan 23, 2012 to celebrate Clark's 70th birthday. The tribute includes
30 tracks by 33 Americana artists who were friends and colleagues of Clark or
who have been influenced by his remarkable compositions. The collection was
mixed and mastered by Austin's Cedar Creek Records principal Fred Remmert.
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| Guy Clark: Guitar sound box, working at home 3 Feb 2003 |
His beloved Susanna died from complications of lung cancer in 2012. Due to ongoing health problems, Guy stopped touring and recording shortly thereafter.
Mr. Clark is survived by his son
Travis and daughter-in-law Krista McMurtry Clark; grandchildren Dylan and Ellie
Clark; sisters Caroline Clark Dugan and Jan Clark; manager and friend Keith
Case; caretaker and sweetheart Joy Brogdon; nieces, nephews and many, many dear
friends, colleagues and fans.
Photo Below:
Guy Clark with Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell
gather at the home of Clark for a night of music 14 May1999
Photo Below:
Guy Clark with Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell
gather at the home of Clark for a night of music 14 May1999
TRIBUTES:
Very pleased to see the perceptive obituary for Guy Clark in @nytimes, recognizing the breadth of his influence. https://t.co/DfXovFfELo— rosanne cash (@rosannecash) 18 May 2016
Oh Lord, just heard Guy Clark passed away. He was a huge influence on me, and an amazing writer. God bless his soul. What a life.— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) 17 May 2016
weet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en-gb">Sad to hear about the passing of Guy Clark. I'll never forget the day I wrote with him and him busting out a J the size of a baseball bat.— KACEY MUSGRAVES (@KaceyMusgraves) 17 May 2016
Guy Clark was my friend. The world is a better place because he lived. I pray for comfort for all who loved him. pic.twitter.com/trvmNPRLDx
— Lyle Lovett (@LyleLovett) 17 May 2016
Very sad to hear of the passing of the Poet Laureate of Nashville. #RIP @GuyClarkKCA #guitarbuilder pic.twitter.com/4j1SbAG6Ii— Bob Harris (@WhisperingBob) 17 May 2016
GUY CLARK OBITUARIES
This is a feature from Country Music People, July 2013: Guy
Clark talks to Spencer Leigh about his new album, My Favourite Picture Of You
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