Steve Earle Announces New Guy Clark Tribute Album, “GUY”
As first revealed by Saving Country Music, Steve Earle has another tribute record on the way, and this one will be for his primary mentor and songwriting confidant, Guy Clark. Entitled GUY, and to be released on New West Records March 29th, it will include 16 Guy Clark songs recorded by Steve Earle and his infamous backing band The Dukes.
“No way I could get out of doing this record,” Earle says. “When I get to the other side, I didn’t want to run into Guy having made the ‘TOWNES’ record and not one about him … Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark were like Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to me.”
Steve Earle released his tribute to Townes Van Zandt in 2009. Guy Clark passed away in 2016 due to Cancer.
“If you asked Townes what it’s all about, he’d hand you a copy of ‘Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,’ ” Earle says. “If you asked Guy the same question, he’d take out a piece of paper and teach you how to diagram a song, what goes where. Townes was one of the all-time great writers, but he only finished three songs during the last 15 years of his life. Guy had cancer and wrote songs until the day he died … he painted, he built instruments, he owned a guitar shop in the Bay Area where the young Bobby Weir hung out. He was older and wiser. You hung around with him and knew why they call what artists do disciplines. Because he was disciplined.”
Along with The Dukes, GUY also features guest appearances by fellow Guy Clark acolytes Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Terry Allen, Jerry Jeff Walker, harmonica player Mickey Raphael, Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Gary Nicholson, and the photographer Jim McGuire.
“GUY wasn’t really a hard record to make,” Earle says. “We did it fast, five or six days with almost no overdubbing. I wanted it to sound live … When you’ve got a catalog like Guy’s and you’re only doing 16 tracks, you know each one is going to be strong.”
You can hear one of the tracks “Dublin Blues” below. GUY is now available for pre-order.
GUY Track Listing:
1. Dublin Blues
2. L.A. Freeway
3. Texas 1947
4. Desperados Waiting For A Train
5. Rita Ballou
6. The Ballad Of Laverne And Captain Flint
7. The Randall Knife
8. Anyhow I Love You
9. That Old Time Feeling
10. Heartbroke
11. The Last Gunfighter Ballad
12. Out In The Parking Lot
13. She Ain’t Going Nowhere
14. Sis Draper
15. New Cut Road
16. Old Friends
January 9, 2019 @ 9:38 am
Tribute albums can be a mixed bag but I have high hopes for this as Townes was very good and the sample song here is promising. Some mighty fine guests too I think we have a winner
January 9, 2019 @ 10:00 am
Hayes Carll tribute album next?
January 9, 2019 @ 10:22 am
Younger Skinnier and Less Talented would make a great title
January 9, 2019 @ 10:56 am
Carll did a pretty good Magnolia Wind on The Next Waltz
January 9, 2019 @ 10:40 am
I really wasn’t into Townes until Earle released ‘Townes.’ Maybe the same will happen after listening to ‘Guy.’ Although, I had that extensive Guy tribute album that was releases in 2011 and although it was neat for awhile, can’t say it helped build my Guy discography.
Out in the Parking Lot …. didn’t Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson record that? (here comes the ‘google it’ police).
January 9, 2019 @ 12:34 pm
Yes they did! It was on Paisley’s great Time Well Wasted record. No doubt it is the definitive version of that song.
January 9, 2019 @ 5:28 pm
Yes, and that’s the version my mind immediately went to when I read the title. Never realized it was a Guy Clark song. Good cut from Paisley and Jackson, and I’m interested to hear Earle’s version of it.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:44 am
Huge fan of both. Can’t wait to hear the album.
January 9, 2019 @ 11:03 am
He did a great job on Townes, looking forward to this.
January 9, 2019 @ 2:34 pm
Man, time sure does fly.
https://youtu.be/sUML2yWVn8c
January 9, 2019 @ 3:09 pm
This one’s an auto-buy.
January 9, 2019 @ 4:26 pm
Not as significant as the music, but I love his album covers and it’s cool the he has kept them consistent with the same artist.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:48 pm
The artist is Tony Fitzpatrick, and they are good friends. (For those who don’t know.) https://tonyfitzpatrick.co/
January 9, 2019 @ 6:12 pm
All those songs and he picks mainly better known ones. Lame.
With Townes, apart from ‘Lungs’ it was all pretty much like a lip service.
I’ll put my money on ‘This Ones For Him’ even if Steve cut a strong version of last gunfighter ballad on it. I wonder if its the same.
January 9, 2019 @ 6:49 pm
He said in an interview he chose ones he connected with, which were mostly ones from early in Guy’s career when Steve first met him and was playing with him.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:29 pm
Guy is my favorite. I never like a cover as much as an original Guy song. Just because his songs are something almost religious to me so anyone else singing never has the truth that Guy had. I’m digging the cover though. Steve put his own spin on it but that’s what you gotta do. We covered Terry Allen’s Wolfman of Del Rio and some die hard TA fans may not like it but I’m not TA and there was only one Guy. Guy rules.
January 9, 2019 @ 10:42 pm
Guy Clark was an artist for the ages no one does his masterpieces better than the maestro himself but given the personal respect and reverence Steve Earle had for Guy coupled with The genius level musicianship Steve possesses this album will be great!!!
January 10, 2019 @ 10:46 pm
His current band is also stellar, and this is a band album.
January 13, 2019 @ 4:07 am
SOCIALIST!! Oh, wait. I thought we were supposed to hate him for that.