Steve Earle Announces New Guy Clark Tribute Album, “GUY”

As first revealed by Saving Country Music, Steve Earle has another tribute record on the way, and this one will be for his primary mentor and songwriting confidant, Guy Clark. Entitled GUY, and to be released on New West Records March 29th, it will include 16 Guy Clark songs recorded by Steve Earle and his infamous backing band The Dukes.

“No way I could get out of doing this record,” Earle says. “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 … Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark were like Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to me.”

Steve Earle released his tribute to Townes Van Zandt in 2009. Guy Clark passed away in 2016 due to Cancer.

“If you asked Townes what it’s all about, he’d hand you a copy ofBury My Heart At Wounded Knee,’ ” Earle says. “If you asked Guy the same question, he’d take out a piece of paper and teach you how to diagram a song, what goes where. Townes was one of the all-time great writers, but he only finished three songs during the last 15 years of his life. Guy had cancer and wrote songs until the day he died … he painted, he built instruments, he owned a guitar shop in the Bay Area where the young Bobby Weir hung out. He was older and wiser. You hung around with him and knew why they call what artists do disciplines. Because he was disciplined.”  

Along with The Dukes, GUY also features guest appearances by fellow Guy Clark acolytes Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Terry Allen, Jerry Jeff Walker, harmonica player Mickey Raphael, Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Gary Nicholson, and the photographer Jim McGuire.  

“GUY wasn’t really a hard record to make,” Earle says. “We did it fast, five or six days with almost no overdubbing. I wanted it to sound live … When you’ve got a catalog like Guy’s and you’re only doing 16 tracks, you know each one is going to be strong.” 

You can hear one of the tracks “Dublin Blues” below. GUY is now available for pre-order.

GUY Track Listing:

1. Dublin Blues
2. L.A. Freeway
3. Texas 1947
4. Desperados Waiting For A Train
5. Rita Ballou
6. The Ballad Of Laverne And Captain Flint
7. The Randall Knife
8. Anyhow I Love You
9. That Old Time Feeling
10. Heartbroke
11. The Last Gunfighter Ballad
12. Out In The Parking Lot
13. She Ain’t Going Nowhere
14. Sis Draper
15. New Cut Road
16. Old Friends

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