A CONVERSATION WITH GUY CLARK (continued)

GC: Well, I had a fiddle that I really can't play, so I loaned it to Darrell. But yeah, he's from another planet.

PM: Boy, he's having a run. Holy jeez! [Darrell's getting a lot of big cuts at the moment.]

GC: Yeah, he's doing quite well, and I'm really happy for him.

PM: It's nice to see the good guys score big covers, when they're just really writing songs and they're true to them.

GC: Uh-huh.

PM: When you've had number ones, you obviously--well, you didn't seem to be writing for The Row, you were just writing.

GC: Right, right.

PM: That's the way it's supposed to be done.

GC: I would think so.

PM: So what's Darrell like, in particular, to record with?

GC: Oh, he's marvelous. I mean, he's very creative in the studio. He's totally supportive of anything you want to do. And he's got wonderful ideas, production ideas. He really knows his way around the studio. I don't particularly. As much as I've been in them, I really don't care for them. But Darrell is really good in the studio. I mean, he has a real working knowledge of how the process works, and what sounds good coming back over tape, and how the stuff works together.

PM: He's a string guy, but he's also gearhead.

GC: Oh, yeah.

PM: How about Shawn Camp? Has he been in your circle long?

GC: I've known Shawn for several years. And he's just an amazing talent. He's a great writer, a marvelous, marvelous guitar player, and plays really good fiddle.

PM: And he's a really cool person.

GC: Oh yeah.

PM: Is he married with kids now?

GC: No, no. He's single. He's got a girlfriend, I think, but he's not married.

PM: What was Chris Latham's part in the dynamic of the whole Dark experience?

GC: Chris is the engineer down at the studio where we do these things. And he's just such an integral part and he has such a marvelous ear. Also it turns out, we didn't know, but he's a pretty good fiddle player. [laughs]

PM: Yeah, you got a good track there.

GC: Yeah. Well, we were talking about getting viola in to do a couple of string things, on "The Dark" and "Homeless." So Chris came in one day with this five-string fiddle, with a low C or B or whatever it is on the low end. And he said, "Well, let me just go out there and put this down, and you can kind of listen to it and see if you want to hire a viola player." And he just went out there and nailed these parts. [laughs]

PM: [laughs]

GC: And we're just going, "Chris, [laughs] why didn't you tell anybody?"

PM: [laughs] This town!

GC: It was really amazing. I mean, he'd never mentioned that he played in the symphony, like serious violin playing, not fiddle playing. And he just blew us away.  continue

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