“They’re just songs. It’s not brain surgery.” – Guy Clark

Brody Vercher | June 22nd, 2007 Email Share

  • Mark Adams has an in depth review of To Live’s To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt by John Kruth. Throughout most of the article Adams refers to the author as Knuth, if you can get passed that it sounds like the book is an interesting read.

    Knuth clearly has good material to work with, and there are only a few times when you wish he had done things differently. I wish he had accepted Guy Clark’s offer of a pre-noon drink. Perhaps then Clark–who describes Van Zandt as “my best friend ever”–would have been more open towards Knuth instead of deriding him as a “Yankee journalist.”

  • Speaking of Guy Clark, he’s scheduled to play in Conroe, TX on Saturday (and Austin next Tuesday!) so Andrew Dansby from the Houston Chronicle has some background info on Clark and gives a little insight into his craft of making guitars and songwriting.

    “It’s kind of a dream come true to be able to have a room where you write songs and build guitars,” Clark says. “If you get stuck writing songs, you just get up and work on a guitar. It’s a right-brain/left-brain thing.

    “Writing is so cerebral. But then four steps away you have this real hand/eye-type stuff. They sort of feed off of one another.”

    Clark downplays his process, despite its consistency.

    “However long it takes is however long it takes,” he says. “They’re just songs. It’s not brain surgery.”

  • You’ll find more Guy Clark references in Chet Flippo’s Nashville Skyline where he lists some songs and artists that he has been listening to and enjoying lately.
  • Toby Keith, country’s sexiest man?
  • The Last Rites of Ransom Pride is a screenplay co-written by Ray Wylie Hubbard and is described as “an action-packed Western about a band of badass Texas outlaws.” This is Texas Music writes “Hubbard is already recruiting friends like Jack Ingram, Cody Canada, and Billy Joe Shaver to help with the soundtrack.”
  • Miranda Lambert was recognized by the Texas Congress in her hometown of Lindale, TX.
  • Country Weekly has gathered up a number of stories about country singers who had near death experiences. From what I gather there were too many for the magazine, so they’ve made some of them web exclusives. They’ve got the story about Johnny Cash crawling into Nickajack Cave (which was turned into a song and sung by Gary Allan on Tough All Over) and they’ve got one about Sammy Kershaw meeting his guardian angel; it kind of gives you the goose bumps reading it.
  • UPDATE: The quality is horrible in some parts, but here’s a video of Adam Hood playing “Buzzes Like Neon” live at City Stages 2007 with a full band.
    via Galleywinter

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  1. T-Shirt Winner for June 30 -- The 9513
    July 3, 2007

    [...] This week’s first winner is Chip who happens to run his own music blog called Amber Waves of Twang. As Chip puts it, he writes “reviews, thoughts and general opinions on an eclectic mix of music. Including but not limted to Americana, Roots Rock, Alt-Country, Alternative, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Blues, Bluegrass and Jazz.” Chip won for his comment about the genius of Guy Clark. [...]

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  1. Jessica
    June 22, 2007 at 9:57 pm Permalink

    What is so sad is that Toby is named Sexiest Man in their magazine and usually they put the person on their cover, instead it is about Carrie’s love life.

    Even more sad…George Strait is not in the Top 10, yet Chris Young who doesn’t really have a hit song (meaning #1, successful singer besides Nashville Star) places in the top 3.

    I will say the Near Death experiences article was more interesting than who is sexier. If they want sexy, tell them to bring Conway Twitty back from the dead…he could always put a country twist to “Sexy Back.”

  2. Linda Banks
    June 24, 2007 at 6:59 pm Permalink

    I think Toby’s sexy, but I agree with Jessica, George S. should be there. Of course, Willie is on my list, too!

    the Near Death experiences article was interesting.

  3. Jessica
    June 25, 2007 at 9:38 pm Permalink

    Good news! George is on the cover (again). Just got the issue in the mail. They named their best looking females as well in the issue. There are articles about Fan Fair too.

  4. Chip
    June 26, 2007 at 3:13 pm Permalink

    Guy is a great songwriter. He’s right it isn’t brain surgery. Brain suregery is a piece of cake compared to the lyrical compositions in a lot of Guy’s music.

  5. Ron W.
    June 27, 2007 at 2:41 pm Permalink

    I’m reading Kruth’s book. Yeah, maybe he should’ve accepted that drink from Guy. But Guy, frankly, acted like a jerk. Instead of deriding a “yankee writer,” maybe Guy should’ve shown more of that supposed “Southern hospitality.”

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