Guy Clark

As Nashville became an ever more slick and commercial industry in the 1970s, Guy Clark was part of a gang of Texan singer songwriters regarded as too wild and ragged for country music's glitzy new image. Raised by his grandmother in a hotel she ran in the small town of Monahans in the west of the state, Clark was inspired by blues singers Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb and started writing and performing in Houston, where he struck up a deep, long-lasting friendship with fellow country folk troubadour Townes Van Zandt. He came to recognition when Jerry Jeff Walker recorded his classics Desperado's Waitin' For A Train and LA Freeway in 1973, and went on to have his songs covered by Johnny Cash, Jimmy Buffet, Ricky Skaggs and John Denver, as well as becoming a mentor to Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. A natural outlaw and emotive songsmith, his other great moments included his anthems Dublin Blues, Randall Knife and The Carpenter and his Grammy Award-nominated album Workbench Songs (2006).