Guy Clark may not be a household name, but his influence on country and Americana runs deep; even those who don’t know the name probably know a song or two that he wrote. Fans of Emmylou Harris should be plenty aware of the Clark catalog, however; along with Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle and others, he helped to define the emerging “outlaw country” movement in the early 1970s, influencing countless back-to-basics singer-songwriters from then onward. Harris sang harmony vocals on Clark’s 1975 debut album Old No. 1, and the two remained close until Clark’s death in 2016.
“A couple years ago, I was at a bluegrass festival and saw these two fellas doing an extraordinary tribute to Guy Clark,” Harris told a full house at The Riverside Theater on Saturday night, just after taking a seat onstage. She was referring to a couple of ace guitarists who’d toured with Clark: Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp, whom she then welcomed to the stage. “It was just so special to hear these songs by Guy being played and sung so beautifully, and I wanted to be a part of it, and I also wanted to bring it as a gift to all of you people who’ve been coming to see me for all these years.”
For the next two-and-a-half hours, the three troubadours played, harmonized, swapped stories, and gave the audience an intimate tribute not only to Clark, but to the roots of country music and the bonds of friendship and creative collaboration that nurtured the legendary Nashville scene of the ’70s. There’d be none of Harris’ chart-topping hits in the setlist tonight; instead, for the third of only three scheduled dates, Milwaukee was treated to a heartfelt history lesson, and songs that will be burned into memories if they weren’t there already.
Thompson, Clark’s longest-serving sideman, probably could’ve filled the entire evening with stories about Guy. “He was six years old, standin’ out there in the back yard smokin’ a Marlboro…” was how the origin story began for “Texas – 1947,” a song first recorded and released by Johnny Cash. While Clark’s aw-shucks delivery never made him a star, his many famous admirers did their best through the years to make sure the royalties kept flowing. “I’m so glad to be in this beautiful theater,” Harris said afterwards. “Thanks to the folks who preserve this place and also the wonderful Pabst, where we’ve played many times. What a joy it is to play these old theaters; they have so much soul, and they sound great.”
Before Harris ever got around to putting a Guy Clark song on one of her own recordings, she’d cut one of his wife Susanna’s compositions: “I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose” kicked off a stretch of familiar Emmylou tunes. Twenty years ago, the opening lines “If they’ll play another love song / And if that Miller High Life sign stays dim” would’ve gotten a rowdy response in the Brew City; not a peep from the audience tonight, however. Included in this section of the set were “If I Needed You” and “Pancho & Lefty,” both Townes Van Zandt originals, as well as the Harris-penned “Red Dirt Girl.” The title track from an album that proved to be one of Harris’ career triumphs, she credited Clark for inspiring its creation. “Rodney and I used to always go and see Guy and Susanna on Christmas Eve, just to hang out,” Harris told us. “A few hours into it, well into the conversation, Guy leaned over to me and said, ‘You need to write your next record, I don’t care if it takes you five years.’ And it did.”
Concluding a “blues” interlude was the Steve Earle ballad “Fort Worth Blues,” which Earle had written in tribute to Van Zandt upon hearing of his passing, and which Harris and Earle have sung together over the years. It was a touching centerpiece before the trio brought the energy back up a bit. “Stuff That Works” was one of five tracks performed off Clark’s 1995 album Dublin Blues; it was a co-composition with Crowell and also featured Harris’ vocals, and under normal circumstances it would’ve inspired some rhythmic clapping or something, but the Saturday night crowd was oddly subdued—or perhaps “polite and attentive” is a better way to think of it.
Next was a song they’d left off the setlist on the first night of the run but then added in thanks to a request by Sam Bush; the mandolinist has been in the Harris orbit since the ’80s and had called to wish her a happy 78th birthday. Emmylou sang on Clark’s original cut of “Immigrant Eyes” and has performed it over the years; few would deny its continued poignancy. Then came a lengthy Thompson storytelling session, revealing how Camp had replaced him temporarily in Guy’s band following a tumble from a ladder. Camp, who made a brief splash as a solo country artist in the ’90s but has since gained more acclaim for behind-the-scenes work, proved to be a gifted singer in his own right as well as a utility string player. “Sis Draper,” part of an epic song-cycle that Clark and Camp wrote together about the titular heroine, was the barnburner of the evening; the song originally appeared on Clark’s 1999 album Cold Dog Soup, but most of the saga will first be unveiled to the public on an album that Camp has already finished recording.
They closed the set with “L.A. Freeway,” perhaps Clark’s best-known song; the 2020 documentary Without Getting Killed Or Caught was titled after its chorus, and Thompson had multiple stories to tell about the Clarks’ escape from “L.A. damn California.” It was a rousing conclusion, and the crowd picked up the chorus of “Old Friends” quickly to augment the encore. Perhaps a lot of Emmylou Harris fans went to this show having never heard of either of these fellas she played with; they’ll be telling their old friends about ‘em today.
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