Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark
There’s one guy out there all the successful big name singers know…..because he wrote many of the best selling songs they sing. That guy is Guy Clark, a native of Monahans, Texas.
I know several folks who have hit it big with hit songs, but Guy Clark seems to have them coming out of his ears. He wrote songs like LA Freeway made famous by Jerry Jeff and also Desperados (Waiting for a Train) as well as Homegrown Tomatoes, Hemingway’s Whiskey, Rita Ballou, To Live is to Fly and tons more.
Here is the late great Don Meredith introducing Jerry Jeff who made this Guy Clark song a big hit. Just had to put Dandy Don in there somehow:
Here’s Jerry Jeff, many years later, with another Guy Clark classic. Guy made Jerry Jeff rich and famous.
From Guy Clark’s website, we learn the following:
Nashville legend Johnny Cash, who then had been topping the charts for 20 years, was among the first Nashville recording artists to embrace Guy Clark’s music. His interpretation of “Texas, 1947” was a 1975 chart hit, followed in 1977 by Clark’s “The Last Gunfighter Ballad.” In 1987, Cash would also cover Clark’s “Let Him Roll.” In 1982, famed songsmith Bobby Bare made it to the country Top Twenty with Clark’s “New Cut Road.” That same year, bluegrass icon Ricky Skaggs escalated his mainstream trajectory with Clark’s “Heartbroke,” a #1 song that permanently established Clark’s reputation as an ingenious songwriter. Among the many others who have gilded their careers with Guy Clark songs are Vince Gill, who took “Oklahoma Borderline” to the Top Ten in 1985; the Highwaymen, who introduced “Desperados Waiting for a Train” to a new generation that same year; and John Conlee, whose interpretation of “The Carpenter” rode into the Top Ten in 1987. Steve Wariner reached the Top Five with the Clark cover “Baby I’m Yours” in 1988, and the same year Asleep at the Wheel charted with his “Blowin’ Like a Bandit.” Crowell was Clark’s co-writer on “She’s Crazy for Leavin’,” which in 1989 became the third of five straight #1 hits for Crowell. More recently Brad Paisley covered Clark’s “Out in the Parking Lot” on his Time Well Wasted CD, and parrotheads are listening to Jimmy Buffet’s version of Clark’s song, “Boats to Build.”
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