Steve Earle & the Dukes - Guy, album review

Honest Homage

As homage goes, this is as exacting as it can be: the inimitable sound of Earle playing the inimitable [paradox excused] songs of Clark.

What I mean is these are clearly Earle and these are clearly Clark, singer and songwriter - both are both of these, but here they are, respectively, one and the other.

A favourite on this fine collection is Desperado Waiting for a Train, such an iconic song that Earle delivers with warmth and gravel and fiddle all in the mix,

So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
And sang another verse to that old song

Next Rita Ballou has Earle in semi-yodel form, pedal-steel and fiddle swarming with warm Clark Country. That Old Time Feeling is another wonderful cover, Clark’s poetry plaintively apt in more pedal-steel and a slowed overall rendition,

And that old time feelin' limps through the night on a crutch,
Like an old soldier wonderin' if he's paid too much.
And that old time feelin' rocks and spits and cries,
Like and old lover rememberin' the girl with the clear blue eyes.

And that old time feelin' goes sneakin' down the hall,
Like an old gray cat in winter, keepin' close to the wall.
And that old time feelin' comes stumblin' up the street,
Like an old salesman kickin' the papers from his feet.

Having recorded his Townes album, Earle’s other significant musical mentor, this is Earle’s observation on recording this one for Clark,

No way I could get out of doing this record, says Earle. When I get to the other side, I didn’t want to run into Guy having made the Townes record and not one about him.