The MG Album Club - #32: Guy Clark - Texas Cookin'

[Ojai Sam]

Guy Clark - Texas Cookin' (1976)

Guy Clark split the difference between the Nashville outlaws (Waylon, Willie and the boys) and the Texas cosmic cowboys like Townes and Kinky. He could write songs with the best of them and his weathered voice left no doubt that he had lived every heartache.

After years as an obscure folkie, somehow he landed a deal with RCA. Texas Cookin' was his second and final album for the label which was too busy helping Dolly go mainstream to market a niche performer like Guy properly. At least he had fun while it lasted. This record sparkles with joy from start to finish. Who wouldn't have fun in the studio with the likes of:

Waylon Jennings
Emmylou Harris
Hoyt Axton
Rodney Crowell
Jerry Jeff Walker
Sammi Smith
Tracy Nelson
Nicolette Larson
Johnny Gimble
Mickey Raphael

The best known song here was "The Last Gunfighter Ballad", a hit for Johnny Cash. But the whole record offers a treasure trove of wit, wisdom and irony.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

This was a pleasant surprise. Not overly twangy or saccharine, unlike the last "modern" country I heard (which was admittedly in the early 2000s, when I briefly worked for Cracker Barrel).

 

[Nickyboy]

What I like about this series is that I am forced get to listen to music I most likely would never be exposed to on my own. This guy Clark album is just such an album. I like the laid back feel of it, and it isn't so country-ish that I think of it as a country album. I suppose this is what might be called Americana? Either way, I like it well enough. Quality musicianship all around.

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

I've recently been appreciating a bit of country in my music universe. Like Nicky, I enjoyed this for it's lack of twanginess, the laid back feel. It sounded like the artists had a lot of fun recording it. It was so much fun I listened to it twice in a row.