A CONVERSATION WITH GUY CLARK

GUY CLARK: Hello.

PUREMUSIC: Hi, Guy. Frank Goodman here from Puremusic.com.

GC: Yeah.

PM: Got a second for me?

GC: Yes, I do.

PM: How are things--life at large, and music in particular?

GC: Oh, pretty good. I just caught the first cold I've had in five or six years.

PM: You know, it's inevitable, with the change of seasons, that's when I get mine too.

GC: Well, I've been up in Santa Fe and Boulder, Colorado, and I hadn't been sick in years, and somehow caught something.

PM: You taking anything?

GC: Oh, yeah, just a little goofy. I just got in late last night from the road.

PM: Sorry to barely give you any space.

GC: Oh, no, that's all right. I had planned it. I knew you were calling. I just was apologizing for maybe being a little goofy.

PM: Yeah, got it. But in general, is health pretty good, aside from--

GC: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all is well.

PM: Do you do anything special in terms of diet or exercise or any of that?

GC: [laughs] Not much.

PM: [laughs] I hadn't caught you at the gym, but I thought I'd ask.

GC: No. [laughs] No, I get pretty much all the exercise I need walking down airport concourses carrying bags.

PM: [laughs] So, next question. And any way I try to form a question about it, it seems impertinent to me, but there's been quite a bit said and written about the Texas songwriter scene. I wonder if I could solicit your view on it. Perhaps any aspect or personality may have been overdone, underdone, or forgotten shamelessly. Is there anything about that Texas songwriter thing you'd say today?

GC: You know, I know people talk about it all the time.

PM: They do.

GC: And there's something to it. I mean, it's obviously there, or it wouldn't get as much press as it gets, or as much discussion. Oh, there's some sort of story telling tradition in Texas, I think, always has been, coupled with music, and probably sort of an attitude that you can do anything that you want to do. There aren't any rules, as far as anything--and that applies especially to writing songs, whatever gets the point across. So you're just kind of brought up to feel--in any field, if you say you can do it, do it. There it is.

PM: There is a thing, certainly, a phenomenon, from your generation from Texas. Is there a crop afoot now that draws from that tradition? If so, I'm not sure I'm aware of it.

GC: A crop? You mean of writers?

PM: Yeah.

GC: I'm sure there is. I mean, there's a lot of good young writers coming out of there.

PM: Any that are friends, their music you're particularly aware of?

GC: Well, there's the Robison Brothers, Charlie and Bruce--

PM: Yeah, that's true.

GC: --those guys, and Pat Green. And Jerry Jeff's son, Django, is writing songs.

PM: Really? I'm going to have to chase his music down. I don't know anything about him.

GC: Yeah, he's good.

PM: But there are plenty.

GC: Oh, believe me, there's a bunch. [laughs] continue

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