Guy Clark 1941-2016

I was told Guy Clark was a difficult interview. Before I visited his West Nashville home in 2013, ornery was the word I heard the most. Indeed, the songwriter that greeted me at the door was gruff. Not to mention intimidating, even at 71, and clearly in physical pain.

As we sat and talked through the afternoon, however, the hour of allotted time stretched to two and then three, and he laughed easily through the thick smoke as he alternated between hand-rolled cigarettes and joints.

Guy Clark died this morning at age 74, the culmination of an illness that had dogged him the past few years. His publicist Tamara Saviano, whose biography of Clark, Without Getting Killed or Caught, will be released later this year, confirmed his passing in a statement. The obituaries will carry the requisite details, but his life was truly told through his songs.

Clark was born in the West Texas town of Monahans in 1941, and his songwriting both drew from and shaped the very character of his home state. His songs were precisely crafted, characters drawn from a life that seemed larger than life, narratives emotionally rent with the subtle insight of hard experience. He was able to paint the vivid, close details of existence with an eye that saw deeper than the surface, and an empathetic understanding that took nothing for granted.

Sitting in his basement workshop three years ago, those details spilled about the room as memories. His father’s Randall knife, his guitar workbench, photos of Townes Van Zandt and his late wife, Susanna. A faded image of Susanna sparked one of his final great songs, “My Favorite Picture of You.”

What may have struck me most about the house that afternoon was just how much silence filled the space. Susanna, whom he had married in 1972, had passed away from a long battle with cancer a year before, and it was difficult to tell if all those surrounding memories served as welcome sanctuary or heavy solitude. Even then, Clark seemed to sense the impending close of his own time.

From “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “L.A. Freeway” to “Dublin Blues” and countless other masterpieces of songcraft, Clark’s catalog served as autobiographical recall. His music helped catalyze an entire generation of songwriters around him, an epitome of craft and artistry and attention to detail that both inspired and humbled.

“The thing about writing songs is, everything is songwriting,” he said before we parted. “All you have to do is remember.”

Guy Clark’s life was woven into his music, and he’ll be remembered through his songs.

20 Years of Guy Clark’s Texas Platters (Excerpt)

My Favorite Picture of You (2013)

This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark (2011)

Songs and Stories (2011)

Somedays the Song Writes You (2009)

Heartworn Highways CD (2006)

Heartworn Highways DVD (2003)

Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, & Guy Clark Together at the Bluebird Cafe (2002)

The Dark (2002)

Cold Dog Soup (1999)

Keepers (1997)

Craftsman (1995)