As far as I know, there are two good reasons to go to Annapolis, MD. One is a boat show and the other is to see Guy Clark live. Rush hour traffic and an anxiety attack did their best to thwart the occasion, but the fortitude of my traveling companion carried us down the road through Baltimore while I continued my ongoing project of trying to find an unrefreshing bottle of Coors beer. The traffic did stop me from seeing the opening act, Slaid Cleaves, who is a good’n, but we rolled in to the Ram’s Head Tavern—a little venue that resembles B.B. King’s in NYC—just before Guy started his set. Guy didn’t care for the Annapolian method of knotting the mic chords into a tangled mass, so as soon as that was remedied, he introduced his friend Verlon Thompson and we were underway. Here was the set list:
1) The Cape: This song comes originally from his great album “Dublin Blues,” but the version I’m posting is from “Together at the Bluebird Cafe.”
2) Boats to Build: The story behind this one was that a friend of his got a gift of a boatbuilding class from his wife—the implication was that she wanted to send him off so that she could screw around on him while he was gone. Regardless, the friend lost the wife but ended up with a beautiful wooden boat.
3) L.A. Freeway: One of his two most famous songs. Story goes: “My wife, Susanna, and I lived out in L.A. for while—what weird place—in a nice little garage apartment that looked out over the prettiest little grapefruit tree you ever did see… Hell, it was the only grapefruit tree I ever saw. Anyways, we had this landlord that was one of those kind of fellas who, every night after work, would go into his garage and make his own bullets. You can’t make this shit up. One morning I heard all this noise and looked out the window to see he was chopping down that beautiful grapefruit tree. I went out there—ever so carefully—and asked ‘what in the hell are you doing?’ He said, ‘this old tree’s been here so long, it’s gotten so big and its roots have spread out so wide that it’s ruining my concrete patio.’ That’s when we knew it was time to get the hell out of there.” Hence the landlord reference.
4) Texas 1947: This was one of his first vivid memories. Not much to do out in West Texas but watch the new train come along.
5) Magdalene: This is such a pretty one. Tryin to get your sweetie to come with you down to Ol’ Mexico with you… It’s from his latest album, Workbench Songs.
6) Homegrown Tomatoes: Somebody shouted out a request for this one. I’m not big on food songs. When you have a poet of Clark’s caliber up there, why ask for a song about produce? It’s a fine little song, but I’d prefer to hear something more substantial during my one and only chance to hear him live.
7) Stuff That Works: Some lovely lines in this’n.
8) Randall Knife: Great epitaph for his papa.
9) Tornado Time in Texas: More west Texas life.
10) Anyhow I Love You: I like Guy’s love songs because he has such an amazing marriage. They give you a glimmer of hope that you might find something like that. Of course you won’t, so they’re actually poison, but they’re good songs anyways. Something different from all the hopeless ones out there.
11) Hemingway’s Whiskey: This is a brand new song, unrecorded as of yet. A damn fine whiskey song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaJCJ3GQVy0
12) Like a Coat from the Cold: I think this is the one song I didn’t get right. It is supposed to be a new one I thought was called “The Coat” or something, but I couldn’t find that, so I’ll just put up this one instead. At least it has the word coat in it.
Next came Verlon’s little bit while Guy went to pop a Claritin or two:
13) Everywhere Yet
14) He Left the Road: About a fella who dies in a car crash :(
15) Darwettia’s Mandolin: About his momma. He tells the story. Check out his super fast picking.
BACK TO GUY
16: Out in the Parking Lot: More west Texas life.
17) Desperadoes Waiting for a Train: Not much more to add to this masterpiece. But in case you never knew who he’s singing about, it’s his grandma’s boyfriend.
18) Dublin Blues: Arguably my favorite Guy Clark song.
ENCORE
19) The Guitar: Another new one that’s unrecorded. Kind of a ghost story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxOego2Sso&feature=related
