In my opinion, Guy Clark is one of America’s finest songwriters. He stands right along side John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Willie and all the other songwriters of his generation. I stumbled on him by accident when trying to learn his song, “The Cape”. I had heard a version by Eric Bibb, and on first listen fell in love with the Lyric “He’s one of those that knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath, and always trust your cape”.
It wasn’t until Clark died on 5/17/2016 that I discovered he wrote the song. Then down the rabbit whole I went, and found out that he wrote dozens, if not a hundred songs that were covered by other artists. The aforementioned Cape, “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, and “LA Freeway”, all made it into the 50 for 50. Maybe I’ll find another of his tunes for this project. There are so many to pick from.
