Customer Reviews

Craftsman

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a valuable compilation of Guy Clark's three Warner Brothers CDs. Alas, these are not Mr. Clark's best outtings. His first Warners effort, the self-titled Guy Clark, was a real mess, featuring lots of songs by other songwriters -- always a bad sign for an singer-songwriter who is more the latter than the former. His second turn on Warners, South Coast of Texas, produced by fellow songwriter Rodney Crowell, was the best of the lot, featuring sharp songwriting and a nice understated production style. Better Days, the final of the 3 Warner LPs, featured a great flock of songs (including two of his best ever, "Homegrown Tomatos" and "Randall Knife"), but the production, again by Crowell, was a little too heavy, an overt attempt to garner country airplay.

Clark's first two recordings on RCA, and his subsequent work on Sugar Hill and Asylum, are more representative than these recordings. But, for a completist, Craftsman is a way to get three recordings in one fell swoop. Undoubtedly, this collection won't stay in print long, so you are advised to act soon if you want to take advantage of this bargain-priced set.

A big-time "boo" to Robert K. Oermann, apparently the only person allowed to write liner notes for country music reissues. As always, he gets an awful lot wrong here (example: suggesting that South Coast of Texas predated Crowell's work as a producer for Rosanne Cash and Cissy Spacek), and provides little new detail nto Clark's career or these CDs. (Can't the writer assume that anyone buying this set already knows who Guy Clark is?) The tale of how a visionary poet like Clark both resisted and failed to resist being remade as a Warner Communicator is probably a very interesting one. Unfortunately, the liner notes don't let us in on that secret...

For those who don't know Guy Clark's music, or only know his recent works, Craftsman is an essential and delightful find. His three early albums put together for this re-release give a complete overview of who Clark is and what he writes about. An absolute must to know the complete Clark musical history.

Aptly named. Craftsman is what this consumate song stylist and writer is. Most of these songs you know as sung from other artists. None are styled or done proper when you here the phasing of the author. His songs are original, and range from heartfelt ballads, to the humorus, to toe tapp`n. The word troubadour in the dictionary must include his name. He`s the "Deacon" of country music.

These songs by Guy Clark speak for themselves. They tell us stories and take us to another place. Guy Clark is a master story-teller and poet who deserves much more recognition than he has received. Buy this one and find out for yourself.

"Supply & Demand" is a fine song for those who might wonder what business today is for country people like Prohibition was in years gone by. What do some Gulf Coast fishermen do to not go bankrupt? Listen and learn... Rappers aren't the only folks with something to say on the issue. Anyone know of any other contemporary song with 'mainstream' values that's sympathetic to the drug problem?

Speaking still of a whole slice of our culture that is basically unknown, "The South Coast of Texas" is just a wonderful song. Welcome to the world of small family shrimp fishing. And, like many other things that represent a functional America, say goodbye to them in the same breath.

Then there's "Randall Knife" that's got all you could want in a tune that pays respect to the generations as they roll on.

But I'll let you discover the rest... Let's just say I'm VERY HAPPY to have discovered this guy finally. --JP

if you walk around claiming to like this album, you're lying. perhaps unknowingly, but your just lying to yourself. you probably just heard somewhere that you should like this Guy Clark fella and you like the way it looks in your cd collection. sittin there with your john denver and your neil young 'harvest moon' album.

it's amazing to me that Clark could start his career of with a couple of excellent albums and then follow it up with three of the most consistently boring albums released in the late 70's. THE LATE 70'S!!!!!!!

now i know the first of these 3 albums 'guy clark' is praised for it's experimentation. for instance he uses some atypical country music instruments like the harpsichord and the clavinet. wow , big deal he still sounds like conway twitty, only conway twitty with a clavinet and a harpsichord. now if you like conway twitty fine, i'll pay you 50 cents to take my copy of this album off my hands, but if you like what guy was doing on those first two albums then pitch the idea of getting this and buy his later period 'dublin blues' album which kicks an immeasurable amount of hole.