GUY CLARK
Workbench Songs
Dualtone
*****

For his first album for new label Dualtone, Guy Clark reaches into his effortless box of tricks and pulls out an album of memorable observation and craggy, loose-limbed, country-folk perfection. Clark has just gone 65, and the years rest easily on his broad Texan shoulders. He fills his songs with slow-talking colourful memories, both bitter and sweet, and the relaxed experience of a man who has been there and back and knows the price that has to be paid. There's not a false bone in Clark and there are no cheap shots or phony moves. He is what he is - an old-style American who is happy in his skin and who doesn't have to shout about his values; he just lives them. And when he gets it right, as he does this time on almost all 11 tracks, he is an inspired storyteller and a great entertainer to boot.

The measure of this album is that it always seems too short. From the opening Walking Man, Clark just rolls up his sleeves and lets his songs, by times funny or by times sad, nestle into our affections. They are funny songs about technophobes (Analogue Girl), mini-tragedies about rodeo clowns (Funny Bone), brilliant observations (Tornado Time in Texas and Out in the Parking Lot) and an affectionate nod to the demon weed (Worry B Gone). The playing and production are understated but brilliantly effective.

With Old No 1, his debut in 1975, Guy Clark set the bar for a new kind of country music, thoughtful and reflective. Thirty-one years later he shows that he has lost none of his edge.

www.guyclark.com