Bottom Line:
This is probably one of the best titles of any disc I've ever heard. Why? Because Guy Clark writes songs that just feel like they came from the backyard workbench. They're aggressively blue collar, straightforward and bone-deep honest, sharply intelligent, shot throughout with real-world emotion, humor, and delivered with Clark's rich, rough-honed, working-man voice. It's a disc that is as whole and real as music can get.
Guy Clark is, like Billy Joe Spears and Kris Kristofferson, a poet laureate of country music songwriters; like them, he delivers his music plain, preferring crisp honesty over high-polished flash and dazzle. It's simple music, played and sung simply, but with a powerful truth strung through each and every line. Here he's gathered together songs he's written with others, as well as a few extras, such as Townes Van Zandt's "No Lonesome Tune" (Van Zandt is another of the great country poets, although he left us far too few songs after far too few years) and the traditional "Diamond Joe." Clark writes with Chuck Mead, Verlon Thompson, Lee Roy Parnell, and Rodney Crowell, amongst others; each and every one a great songwriter on their own, but coupled with Clark? Awesome. Workbench songs, indeed. Then we throw in a bunch of workin' man players and singers, like Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Chris Latham, Eddie Bayers, and Bryn Bright, and the result is nothing short of fantastic. It's music more than worth listening to. It's music that should be listened to, frequently, and with both ears. Not that it isn't great as background, but man, you gotta hear those lyrics.
Clark starts out with "Walkin' Man," co-written with Steve Nelson, a song filled with nostalgia yet forward-looking, remembering the "walking men" of the past while reaching for some walking shoes to continue the voyage of life. There's a strong flavor of the southwest woven throughout every song, leaning toward Texas, which isn't unusual considering that's where Clark is from. He touches both sides with his songs, funny and sorrow. "Tornado Time in Texas" reminds me a little of Clark's "Texas Cookin'," it has the same lighthearted turns of phrase, with lines like "Tornado time in Texas/ take the paint right off of your barn/ tornado time in Texas/ blow the tattoo off of your arm/ Now when pigs fly, no, I mean really fly/ You can bet that it's blowin' hard/ Uncle Clarence was sittin' in the outhouse/ Now he's sittin' in the yard," it's as fun as "Funny Bone" is heartbreaking: "He was a pretty good rodeo clown/ 'til he met the gal who sold the souvenirs/ He could make her smile from ear to ear/ they stayed up all night drink' rodeo beer ... he don't laugh much anymore/ Since she locked her trailer door." Guy's plain acoustic guitar paired with Bryn Bright's cello makes for a serious tear-jerker.
Brad Paisley fans will enjoy hearing Clark's own version of his "Out In The Parkin' Lot" (which appeared on Paisley's Time Well Wasted as a duet with Alan Jackson), here sung a little slower and featuring some excellent harmonies with Verlon Thompson. There's party songs with "Cinco De Mayo in Memphis," love songs with Van Zandt's "No Lonesome Tune" and "Magdalene", and more humor with "Expose" and "Worry B Gone," and the sheer fun of "Analog Girl." Clark and his songwriting buddies have built up a wonderful, must-have disc you probably won't hear too much on the mainstream radio, but it's already on the Freeform Americana Roots Charts. Check it out. You'll enjoy it.
Song List:
- Walkin' Man
- Magdalene
- Tornado Time in Texas
- Funny Bone
- Expose
- Out In the Parkin' Lot
- No Lonesome Tune
- Cinco De Mayo in Memphis
- Analog Girl
- Worry B Gone
- Diamond Joe (duet with Verlon Thompson)
