Old Number One/Texas Cookin'

Guy's debut album (Old No 1) occupies the first ten tracks here and is generally regarded as the best album of his career. Among the stars providing harmony vocals are Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Sammi Smith. It is extraordinary to think that Steve Earle (whose own music was influenced by Guy's to some extent) didn't make his own breakthrough until more than a decade after this album was recorded. The set opens with Rita Ballou, later covered by Vince Gill (you can find it on his breakthrough album, When I call your name). The most famous songs here are LA freeway (a minor American hit for Jerry Jeff Walker), Texas 1947 (covered by Johnny Cash) and Desperadoes waiting for a train (covered by many different artists).

Following the critical acclaim of his debut, Guy followed it up with the almost equally brilliant Texas cooking, which occupies the last ten tracks here. Rodney and Emmylou again provide harmony, this time joined by Jerry Jeff Walker, Nicolette Larson, Waylon Jennings, Hoyt Axton and Tracy Nelson among others. Further classic songs are to be found here including The last gunfighter ballad (later covered by Johnny Cash).

Subsequent albums provided further songs for others to record including Heartbroke (Ricky Skaggs), She's crazy for leaving (Rodney Crowell) and Old friends (Lacy J Dalton). Guy's versions of those songs can be found elsewhere.

Whatever the reasons for Guy's lack of commercial success, he has proved his worth as a songwriter while there are enough people (including me) who appreciate his music to warrant record companies re-issuing his old material.


There's more to country music than sentimental schmaltz   April 23, 2003
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

A lot of people who think they hate country music would like this. The first album is full of mostly slower songs, usually with quite simple, sparse backing. The second is more up-tempo, sounding something like a missing link between Willie Nelson & Little Feat, if you can imagine that. Some excellent lyrics which suit his limited, gruff voice very well.

Only missed five stars beacause of some annonying screaching background vocals, mostly Emmylou Harris, I susoect.


An example of songwriting perfection   March 28, 2002
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is probably the best CD I own. An example of songwriting perfection, Guy pours his heart out in these albums. The songs are fascinating, the content brutally honest. Mainstream country could learn a helluva lot from this Guy.


Simply a classic   March 26, 2001
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a great collection of great songs by a great artist. You will find here songs that are well written, beuatifully crafted and played with simple, effective skill. Guy Clark burst onto the alternative country scene with Old Number One and its a mystery how his particular brand of musical story telling didn't catch on to find wider, more lucrative audiences. Guy has eschewed commercialism and missed out on the TV fuelled, cash for cliches bonanza that country has become. Instead he preferred poetry. And here you find that in abundance. The melancholy tale of an old wino and a whore, the final days of a pioneer oil man, the balld of a dying gunfighter bemused by the early twentieth century technology. Themes that reflect the working class Texan culture that Clark grew up in: pain, death, booze, lonliness, but most of all hope. Hope and the irrespressiblity of the human spirit...