Guy Clark
The Dark
Sugar Hill Records
by William Michael Smith

Says his hip talks to him when it's ready to rain
He's had a little nip and he's feelin' no pain
When he gets like this, he feels like talkin'
He said he took some shrapnel at the Bay of Pigs
Lost two fingers on a Gulf oil rig
Oh, you gotta watch him, he'll take off walkin'
-- "Bag of Bones," Guy Clark

The words. Guy Clark is all about the words.

Guy Clark's The Dark finds the dean of Texas singer-songwriters doing what he does, working away within the discipline of his craft, continuing to learn and refine. A man who works with his hands when he's not pursuing his muse, Clark's albums have been marked by a high standard of craftsmanship. He has always had a painter's eye for moving, sympathetic character sketches, a singular ability to splash a couple of hundred words on paper, put some music behind them, and draw us a mental picture that is revealing, mystical, and satisfying. Clark's images tend toward the earthy realism of a Mona Lisa.

Clark's quiet character sketches on The Dark recall his earliest notable works like "Desperadoes Waiting For a Train" and "L.A. Freeway." Unlike "Cold Dog Soup" with its edgy catalog of the hip and modestly famous, the characters on The Dark are unknowns. Clark's ability to economically distill the essentials of a character and elegantly reveal the spiritual core is a primary trait of his remarkable talent. On the high-spirited "Arizona Star," the portrait of a Nashville Bohemian bon vivant, Clark captures all the attitude and panache that marked this unusual character who "had a girlfriend named George." As is often the case with Clark, there is respect for I-did-it-my-way individuality and non-conformity.

She was a pre-Madonna prima donna part time southern belle
She shoulda been an actress she played the part so well
She might've been a singer you really couldn't tell
She was the Arizona star and she was born to give 'em hell

Clark again utilizes a small acoustic, no-drums unplugged approach on The Dark, with Darrell Scott, Verlon Thompson, and Chris Latham comprising the main ensemble. The sound is very traditional and folkish. Clark understands what works with his uneven, occasionally gruff vocals and his songs that seem more like the kinds of stories old men used to tell as they sat around a wood-burning stove in the general store.

In addition to a simple interpretation of Townes van Zandt's "Rex's Blues," the album is full of co-writes. "She Loves to Ride Horses," written with Keith Sykes, celebrates another woman full of independence, attitude, and vitality. Again, with only a few well-chosen word-strokes, we get a Kodachrome psychological portrait and it is all we need to know.

Two shots of Wild Turkey puts the wind in her hair
Bound and determined in the cold mornin' air
If you don't like to ride horses I'd suggest you stay home
She don't ride double, get a horse of your own

"Queenie's Song" was written with Clark's inimitable Sugar Hill stable mate Terry Allen. Both men grew up in West Texas and exhibit the directness and sandy brevity that characterizes the people of the region. Given that the subject is the shooting of Allen's dog, the song that emerges is full of law-west-of-the-Pecos venom and biting commentary. Ironically, the song also contains one of the most memorable hooks on the album.

Queenie's getting buried
It's time to dig the hole
New Year's Day in Santa Fe
Broke mean and it broke cold

Along with his characterizations, Clark is also a noted storyteller. "Soldier's Joy" takes us inside a gruesome Civil War field hospital. Written with Shawn Camp, who collaborated with Clark on "Sis Draper" from Cold Dog Soup, a wounded solider about to have his leg amputated calls out for morphine ("soldier's joy").

Red blood run right through my veins run all over the floor
Run right down his apron strings like a river out the door
He handed me a bottle and said, son, drink deep as you can
He turned away then he turned right back with a hacksaw in his hand

Gimme some of that Soldier's Joy you know what I like
Bear down on that fiddle boys just like Saturday night
Gimme some of that Soldier's Joy you know what I crave
I'll be hittin' that Soldier's Joy til I'm in my grave

Clark's poignant, sympathetic vignette of Nashville's homeless features his usual unblinking realism and lyrical directness. Written with Ray Stevenson, the song was inspired when Stevenson saw a man on a Nashville corner holding a cardboard sign that said "Friend for Life ­ 25 cents." The lyric succinctly sums up all the clichés and excuses about the homeless and throws them back in our faces as we try to look away and ignore "the problem."

Homeless, get away from here
Don't give 'em no money they'll just spend it on beer
Homeless, will work for food
You'll do anything you gotta do
When you're homeless

The most interesting piece on the album is the title (and final) track. Unlike most of Clark's songs, which are very concrete and real-life and in which Clark leaves no doubt as to the conclusions we are to draw or the lessons to be grasped, "The Dark" is a concept piece, an open-ended interpretive observational poem set to music. The song seems to have been inspired by van Zandt's brilliant line (in "Rex's Blues"), "there ain't no dark til something shines," but Clark has turned the line upside down as he examines the special aspects of the dark. In a sense, Clark is pointing out what can only be seen or appreciated after the sun goes down. It is a thoughtful piece, filled with reverence and contentment. While most of the songs on the album are clearly "Guy Clark songs," Clark takes a chance and stretches himself on "The Dark."

With a body of work like Guy Clark's, comparisons with other albums can range from arbitrary to pedantic to vacuously pointless. With an artist of Clark's caliber and longevity, a litany of glossy superlatives seems superfluous. Suffice it to say that The Dark is most definitely a Guy Clark album and while it may not be a revolutionary about-face, it doesn't pretend to be either. Guy Clark knows who he is and what he is about. On The Dark, like the long time guitar maker that he is, Mr. Clark continues to shape, sand, and polish his thoughts. The result is a quiet album that, like an old Levi jacket, fits well and has a lot of wear in it.

*www.sugarhillrecords.com or check out a good fan site at www.andrew.barron.net/guy_clark/discography/thedark.html

 
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