Postscript: Guy Clark, 1941-2016

A good place to begin remembering the life of Guy Clark, the singer and songwriter, who died on Tuesday, at the age of seventy-four, is “Heartworn Highways,” a documentary directed by James Szalapski that featured many of the musicians from what was known as the outlaw-country movement of the nineteen-seventies, including Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Young, Rodney Crowell, and Steve Earle. In the film, which was shot in 1975 and 1976, Clark performs a few of his songs, including “That Old Time Feeling” and “L.A. Freeway,” which had, several years earlier, been covered by his friend Jerry Jeff Walker. But what comes through most in the documentary is Clark’s presence; he is tall and strikingly handsome, with fearsome brows, a great mane of brown hair, and slightly busted front teeth. He wears a blue denim work shirt, which would become his signature look for about the next half century, and a silver-and-turquoise ring on his right hand. In the middle of the film, there is an extended scene of Clark, a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, at work repairing a guitar, filing small pieces of bone for the nut and bridge while discussing the particulars of wood glue. The camera zooms in on his hands—big and strong, nicked up a little, and with fine, short nails. They have the plain look of what they were, a builder’s hands. People have said similar things about Clark’s songs, that they were cut and crafted, made for the long run.