Guy clark biography book

I just do what I do. His songs have been an important part of my life longer than I realized. Turns out I knew a lot about Guy before I knew who he was. A lot of people know Guy songs that others sang and made bigger hits, but his voice and style make them more profound. And he tells it like it was meant to be. The song also makes another, one about the two of them witnessing the first fast train they ever saw as it passed Monahans on its inaugural trip, Texasmore visceral.

She puts together clues that decipher different parts of his life and thoughts and how he spent most of his life in Nashville, Tennessee, but never strayed far from his Texas roots. Guy probably could have done anything he set out to do. His father was a successful attorney. But Guy decided to forge his own way, take his experiences and relationships with people he knew and loved to make songs out of them.

He did a lot of smoking and drinking along the way, never taking things too seriously, but never losing a sense of their profundity. The latter was inspired by an episode of when he and Townes Van Zandt got on her nerves. Guy and Townes are easy choices to include in the pantheon of greatest American songwriters. Guy was the stable one. Townes was always searching and never was quite comfortable with himself or the world, a vulnerability that comes through in many of his songs.

Guy, on the other hand, enjoyed life, reveled in its mysteries, knew the inner stability of the love of a close partner, and just loved being with people, celebrating and learning from them along the way. But Guy often covered Townes's most optimistic song in his concerts, probably to show the man he knew best. The first, The Capeis easily among the best ever written about hope and possibilities.

Guy clark biography book

The second, The Randall Knife is a tribute to his father became a classic about familial love. Finally, can there be a better song about the people you guy clark biography book than Old Friends? Guy was worthy of the best complement I think one can give: he was fully comfortable with knowing who he was. And that comes through over and over again in this wonderful biography.

Thank god. The book hits shelves on Oct. Rich in interviews with Guy and his wife Suzanna, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill and others, the book details the hard-scramble life of the singer as he moved from Texas to Los Angeles and eventually to Nashville. The life experiences that formed the songs, etc. It's also an interesting chronicling of the weird, triangular love story of Guy, Suzanna and Townes Van Zandt.

It's raw and unapologetic -- just like Guy. Author 2 books 1 follower. Tamara Saviano spent years working on her biography of Guy Clark, and the result is a book worthy of the great songwriter. There is a tremendous amount of research behind the book: many hours spent with Guy, his wife Susanna, Rodney Crowell, and many others who worked with Guy over the years.

There are many insights into Guy's writing process and influences. Saviano dives deeply into exploring his relationships with Susanna Clark and Townes Van Zandt, and she doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable moments. The ending, which takes us past Guy's death to the subsequent celebrations of his life, is poignant. Highly recommended. Fans are scary beasts.

My first Bruce Springsteen concert - relatively recently - left me with that distinct impression. That know-what-he-has-for-breakfast sort of love. But being a fan does that to you. You enter by the music and fall into so much more. The thing is, music is magic. There is no secret door back down into a song. And where music is made is the place inhabited by parking tickets, throat infections, divorce, mortgages Music happens in the performance, the captured recording, on the stage, in a moment.

The story of a musician is the ocean surrounding tiny, idyllic islands of song. No matter how sublime the music, what life could hope to match up with a treasured, masterfully written, memory-embedded song? I write some songs that consciously or unconsciously sound like him in the same way a quick sketch might look like Mt Everest. His songs inspire and enhance, inflame imagination with lyrics that hit you like a bucket of cold water, or a hug, or a vivid dream, again and again.

A biography of Guy Clark is an irresistible prospect. I woke up this morning with a Guy Clark song running through my head. And as the author admits early in the piece, the life of Guy by implication entwines itself around his wife and muse, Susanna, and his friend and compatriot, songwriter Townes Van Zandt. The book is competently written, clearly meticulously researched and rich - at times a little too rich - with detail.

Getting a picture of the life behind the songs is fascinating. The obvious trap would be to guild the lily, gush and flatter and leave out the messy bits. But he plays to a smaller audience by including too much detail, too many names, a bit too much of the same thing in similar places. Sometimes - in a competent, journalistic way - Saviano includes just too many details, too many venues, too many names.

There is a rich cast of contributors whose presence and significance and insight into in the Guy Clark story is well explained, well-placed and well-paced. Just sometimes I feel like this book as a gift to those people closest to events makes it slightly harder going for the rest of us. Does this book drag you through? Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Nick Evans. Read more about this author Read less about this author. Customer reviews. How customer reviews and ratings work Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. Review this product Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Images in this review. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. For more than forty years, Guy Clark has been writing and recording unforgettable songs.

His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him. Table of Contents. Download Full Book Cover Download. Contents pp. Preface pp. His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him. She maneuvers the story elegantly from biography to memoir.

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