Guy Clark
Guy Clark performs at the 11th annual Americana Honors & Awards, Wednesday Sept. 12, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn.
Famed singer-songwriter Guy Clark is dead at 74, according to The Tennessean. He died in Nashville Tuesday after a long illness and a lengthy cancer battle, the newspaper reported.
The Grammy-winning troubadour released 13 studio albums throughout his career and was inducted in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs were recorded by major country artists like Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, George Strait, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson and others.
His most notable songs included “Desperados Waiting for the Train,” “Workbench Songs,” “L.A. Freeway,” “The Red River Valley,” “That Old Time Feeling,” “New Cut Road,” “Heartbroke,” “Oklahoma Borderline,” “Homegrown Tomatoes,” “Hemingway’s Whiskey” and “She’s Crazy for Leavin’.”
Most of the Texas native’s music was categorized in the progressive and outlaw country genres, but “A Tribute to Guy Clark” won the 2012 award for Americana Album of the Year. The tribute album featured covers of Clark by Crowell, Gill, Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin, Ron Sexsmith and Steve Earle.
Clark himself won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album with “My Favorite Picture of You,” his final release. According to Clark’s website, the record featured a picture of his wife and creative partner, the late Susanna Clark who died in 2012, on the cover.
“I stepped into his home once and it was full of art and guitars, it was this place full of artistic creation,” Lovett told the Houston Chronicle. “And that reaches into his songs as well. We’re all trying to get to the same place through our discovery of things that make us feel like we’re OK. That’s basically what music and art does… Guy’s a master at expressing feeling in songs.”
