Guy Clark
The Dark
(Sugar Hill)
First Appeared at The Music Box, December 2002, Volume 9, #12
Written by John Metzger
In calling his latest album The Dark, Guy Clark couldn’t have selected a better title. The disc’s twelve songs rummage around the bleaker side of the human condition as Clark conveys tales of war (Soldier’s Joy, 1864), vagrancy (Homeless), gun-toting maniacs (Queenie’s Song), and old age (Bag of Bones) with his suitably plain-spoken and craggy voice. For all the grim glimpses at life and death that he delivers with his words, however, he uses the accompanying music to bathe his tunes in the warm glow of campfire on a clear, star-filled night on the Texas range.
For well over twenty-five years, Clark has been performing on the Texas music
scene, and in that time, he has earned a great deal of praise and respect from purveyors of fine
folk songwriting. While this certainly is warranted, his albums haven’t always meshed his finer
lyrics with his better performances — a fact that makes The Dark all the more remarkable, for
it is a thing of utterly honest beauty and raw emotion that is sure to tug on your heartstrings as
easily as it tickles your ear. 
Of Further Interest...
Lyle Lovett - My Baby Don't Tolerate
Various Artists - Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt
The Dark is available from Barnes & Noble.
To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2002 The Music Box