From Rodney Crowell’s first words kicking off the recording to Jerry Jeff Walker’s final note on the last track, This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark is one of the finest releases to grace the music world in a long time. Maybe it’s because all the songs are written by a master storyteller who has inspired a generation of songwriters. MORE HERE
The key to producing a great tribute album lies in assigning the songs to the singers, and the ones here are well-matched. Most of the artists hit the precarious balance between honoring the original work and making it their own. It all sounds as natural as the pickin' parties at Clark's house in the 1970s, from the iconic Willie Nelson — who riffs on Clark's timeless "Desperados Waiting for a Train" — to Radney Foster's excellent reading of "L.A. Freeway" (a Clark classic made popular by Jerry Jeff Walker) to a new song that Clark wrote during the making of this tribute called "My Favorite Picture of You," which he asked Walker to sing.
2011 NPR Guy Clark interview HERE
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