Guy Clark's "Somedays The Song Writes You"

You're driving down a West Texas highway. Dust blows across your lane as the sun begins to set, and you start to look for a place to pull over. Up ahead a neon sign kicks on over a little roadhouse, so you swing into the parking lot, hearing flattened beer cans and bottle caps crunch under your tires. As you push your truck door closed against the wind, you can hear a fiddle tuning up inside. If you are very, very lucky - once in a lifetime lucky - Guy Clark will be playing tonight.

Now we all know that Guy Clark has come a long, long way from those little knockaround joints along America's lonesome back roads. But he brings that feel with him wherever he goes, and it lives in every single track on his newest cd "Somedays the Song Writes You". The spare acoustic treatment is pure sawdust and peanut shells, and the stories will bring a tear to your eye or raise the hair on the back of your neck.

This project has Guy working with an RV full of dedicated songwriters and pickers. The overall effect is smooth, brisk, and businesslike, a set of songs that tell the story and then get the hell out of the way so the boys can play.

Some of Guy's old friends are here, and it is a "Who's Who" of stellar songwriting talent. Rodney Crowell, Shawn Camp and Verlon Thompson. Gary Nicholson, Jon Randall, Ray Stephenson and Joe Leathers. Their talent and craft speak for themselves down through the years.

A trio of new, young writers have come along too - Ashley Monroe, Jedd Hughes and Patrick Davis. Let's talk about them.

Ashley Monroe in particular has an interesting tale, a talented songwriter who has already made her mark in the eye-gouging, elbow-throwing world of mainstream Nashville Country. Her shabby treatment by Columbia/Sony has not made her quit, and for that she gets props from me. This is some of her best work yet, but with her tunes already being recorded by Kelly Pickler, Nora Jones, Ricky Skaggs and Carrie Underwood, Ashley has come a long way from playing piano in Pigeon Forge.

Jedd Hughes has already played the Opry and toured with Patty Loveless. Jedd's Australian, by way of Texas and Nashville, and throws some mighty fine licks into the mix here. We'd expect nothing less from a man who has learned at the knee of Terry McBride (McBride and the Ride) and came ten thousand miles to play Bluegrass.

Patrick Davis hails from Camden, South Carolina, and has literally exploded onto the Nashville scene as a rising talent over the past four years. He has already co-written with a small gymnasium full of stars, and has been signed to EMI Publishing. He is no slouch, and we will be hearing more from him.

As usual when I am listening to anything by Clark, I run short of superlatives. From the opening track "Somedays You Write The Song", the words and music are so carefully chosen, so precise, and so seamless that it seems the song has been around a hundred years.

"The Guitar" is a real gem, a blend of South Texas, West Virginia, and The Twilight Zone. Guy's voice here is perfect for the feel of the story, but then it usually is, isn't it?

An unapologetic whiskey drinker myself, I couldn't get enough of "Hemingway's Whiskey" and I agree - "even when it burns, it will always finish clean".

"The Coat" is a nice tongue-in-cheek salute to overconfidence. "Smells like rain, feels like hell" and you can almost feel the cold water running down the back of your neck. Second thoughts are sometimes the smartest ones.

"All She Wants is You" is a sparse treatment of a strong tune that would be completely at ease on a Santana album. A nice swinging rhythm, with a rock feel to the lyrics, but solid enough to fit right in.

"If I Needed You" is a Townes Van Zandt classic, classically presented. Nobody tried to gild the lily here, since it was already solid gold.

I really got into "Hollywood". I spent a few years in LA, and still recall a Halloween Night I spent on Hollywood Boulevard. This tune really gets it.

"Eamon" reminded me so much of Michael Peter Smith's "The Dutchman" in part of its chord progression that I was actually amused to hear the line "make a Dutchman drool" thrown in there as kind of an offhand tribute.

"Wrong Side of the Tracks" takes the old "Sixteen Tons" feel into an entirely familiar neighborhood. If you've ever been homeless and on the hustle, this tune's for you. If you're just driving by in a limo, keep on going. Unless you have cash.

"One Way Ticket Down" tells the tale of the inevitable crash at the end of the high, a "Sunday Morning Coming Down" for those who partake of substances much stronger than beer. I liked the way this tune flowed, kinda downhill slow, like a preacher's son I knew back in Carolina.

"Maybe I Can Paint Over That" is a great way to end this collection of songs. "I've got some ink beneath my skin - a good idea at the time. I won't be doing that again, not with any arm of mine." A fine song about a man looking his failings right in the eye, and still managing to chuckle about them.

If you are a fan of Guy Clark, of well-worn wisdom polished like river rocks into smooth solid songs, you will love this disc. If you are not a fan of Guy Clark, here's your hat. Where's your hurry? Don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on your way back out to your truck.

"Somedays The Song Writes You" will be released September 22, 2009, on Dualtone Records.