Guy Clark - Workbench Songs
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Guy ClarkEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-11-21
Music Label: Dualtone Music Group
Soundtracks:
- Walkin' Man
- Magdalene
- Tornado Time In Texas
- Funny Bone
- Expose
- Out In The Parkin' Lot
- No Lonesome Tune
- Cinco De Mayo In Memphis
- Analog Girl
- Worry B Gone
- Diamond Joe
Free Music Notes for Workbench Songs
Free Music Review: latest from a national treasure
Hit: 5 Stars
There may be better songwriters than Guy Clark-but you can count them on one hand with fingers left over. This disc has him co-writing with some of the best in Nashville-Gary Nicholson, Lee Roy Parnell, Steve Nelson, Ray Stephenson and old standbys Rodney Crowell and Verlon Thompson. The result is a project that loses none of Guy's touch, but slightly broadens the musical palate. In addition, there is a greater emphasis on production, making the record sound more like a country record (in a good sense) than a bluegrass or folk record as some projects have sounded in the past.
The disc opens with two exceptional tracks, Walkin' Man and Magdalene. Both benefit from the expanded musical palate and are full of brilliant images. They are followed by Tornado Time in Texas full of Guy's wry sense of humor (when pigs fly, no I mean really fly), Funny Bone a look at the kind of lovable losers Guy can see when others see nothing, and Expose, co-written with Rodney Crowell.
Guy is prone to reprising something he has previously released, and this time we get a full band/production version of Out In the Parkin' Lot. While really nice, IMHO it loses some of the understated elegance it had on Keepers. This is followed by the obligitory Townes Van Zandt tune, and in No Lonesome Tune, Guy has found a song that perfectly fits the mood of this record.
The record closes with a trio of songs that are full of humor and pleasaure. Cinco De Mayo In Memphis a meeting of hispanic culture with Memphis, Analog Girl, about one of those girls who just doesn't fit the digital age and Worry B Gone a tribute to the capacity of smoke to remove the stresses of life. The final track is a duet between Guy and Verlon Thompson on Diamond Joe, sung with "a big old sweep of the cowboy hat" to Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
All in all a very satisfying record. Highly recommend
Workbench Songs Poster
The title of this album would seem a tad precious applied to the releases of the majority of Nashville musicians. But Guy Clark--song craftsman, guitar builder--has been doing such finely measured work for all of his storied career that "Workbench Songs" aptly sums up the pride and precision he brings to these 11 offerings. Joined by cowriters Darrell Scott, Rodney Crowell, Gary Nicholson, Lee Roy Parnell, and Verlon Thompson, Clark is at turns wry and poignant in chronicling human acts great and small. And, as usual with his albums, a number of these songs resonate long after first listen. "Walkin' Man," a Celtic-flavored demo recording which kicks off the set, pays homage to the pilgrims and searchers--Gandhi and Woody Guthrie--who had the courage to make their own path. "Out in the Parkin' Lot," the Darrell Scott collaboration which Clark recorded on 1997's live Keepers, has a more lived-in feel here, and better captures the novelistic scene of roadhouse rowdiness. ("Now there's a couple of cowpokes puttin' up their dukes / There wasn't much to it after both of 'em puked.") Clark knows how to deliver these gems with optimum emotional impact: His cover of Townes Van Zandt's aching "No Lonesome Tune" goes bone-deep despite its underplayed pathos, as does "The Randall Knife"-ish "Funny Bone," about a rodeo clown brought down by faithless love. But he's no less affecting on "Tornado Time in Texas," a jaunty country-blues tune spiked with a shuffle chorus ("Blow the tattoo off of your arm"), or on "Cinco De Mayo in Memphis," a wildly surrealistic snapshot of Mexican deckhands in the blue-suede-shoes territory of Graceland. Last year, the Americana Music Association honored Clark with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter. This album is further proof that he deserved it. --Alanna NashCountry Music CDs
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