DON GONYEA, HOST:
I'm lucky enough to have seen Guy Clark perform, I don't know, maybe a dozen times, probably more than, that over the years. The first was sometime in the mid-'80s, and by then, he was already Guy Clark, living legend, songwriter's songwriter.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "L.A. FREEWAY")
GUY CLARK: (Singing) If I can just get off of this L.A. freeway without getting killed or caught.
GONYEA: But before Guy Clark was that Guy Clark, he was a 28-year-old, still struggling to make it as a songwriter, standing in front of a small audience in a coffee house at the University of Houston in 1970.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CLARK: (Singing) The old country blues is all I see rolling into Austin, looking for thee.
GONYEA: His opening act that night was a high school student named John Koontz. He asked Clark if he could record the set, and Guy said yes.
TAMARA SAVIANO: John passed this cassette recorder around to his friends, and I heard from a few of these friends that they played the tape until it broke. And the reel-to-reel or whatever he first recorded on was lost.
GONYEA: That's Tamara Saviano, friend, producer and expert in all things Guy Clark. She says that everyone thought that recording was lost forever. But then...
SAVIANO: In 2021, John was cleaning up his house and stumbled upon one copy of this cassette tape.
GONYEA: That recording eventually made its way to Saviano and her studio, and it will be released on February 28. I asked Saviano which track stood out to her.
SAVIANO: "Step Inside My House." That's the first song Guy wrote. And so that one always - I'm kind of listening differently to hear how this song progressed as Guy would play it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STEP INSIDE MY HOUSE")
CLARK: (Singing) Step inside my house, Babe. I'll sing for you a song. And I'll tell you 'bout where I've been. It shouldn't take too long.
SAVIANO: Guy I always thought that that was an unfinished song. So I can hear the hesitance. Like, am I really singing this song? Is this song finished? Is this song worth singing in front of an audience?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STEP INSIDE MY HOUSE")
CLARK: (Singing) It sure is nice from right over here when the light's a little dim.
SAVIANO: He never recorded it in a studio setting, but he would play it live in Houston, and it was passed around from songwriter to songwriter in Houston. So someone would hear Guy play it, and then they'd play it. And that's how it made its way to Lyle Lovett, who later recorded it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STEP INSIDE THIS HOUSE")
LYLE LOVETT: (Singing) Step inside this house, girl. I'll sing for you a song.
GONYEA: He does 18 songs on this record. Six of them are covers, songs he didn't write. He does a very well-known Jackson Browne song. He does "These Days."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THESE DAYS")
JACKSON BROWNE: (Singing) And I had a lover.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THESE DAYS")
CLARK: (Singing) I don't think I'll risk another these days. These days.
GONYEA: He sure makes it a Guy Clark song here, even though I know every word is a Jackson Browne song.
SAVIANO: He does, and I found myself wondering, how did he find this song? You know, where did he find "These Days"?
GONYEA: I found a 1967 version of that song recorded by Nico on that Velvet Underground banana record.
SAVIANO: Oh. Well, that makes sense, OK. I couldn't figure out how he got the song.
GONYEA: Music aside, what do you hear in here?
SAVIANO: The first track is called "Susanna." And any time that Guy writes about Susanna or talks about his love for Susanna, that intrigues me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUSANNA LET YOUR HAIR DOWN ON ME")
CLARK: (Singing) Susanna, let your hair down on me. Cover up the blues.
SAVIANO: They had such an interesting relationship from the very start, how they met through Susanna's death. And then also "Headed Back To California," which is also talking about that, you know, relationship with Susanna.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEADED BACK TO CALIFORNIA")
CLARK: (Singing) All the way from California I have come see you smile again.
SAVIANO: This is the very early days of their relationship. So to hear Guy sing "Headed Back To California" about Susanna, about his commitment already to Susanna and his love for Susanna just months into their relationship, that just really struck me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEADED BACK TO CALIFORNIA")
CLARK: (Singing) From the Greyhound stationed to your door, I turned around 10 times or more.
GONYEA: We're coming up on a decade since Guy passed away. He was 74 years old. You've spent a lot of time working his legacy and thinking about his legacy in the years since. How does this contribute?
SAVIANO: Well, I think, you know, there are a lot of us who know who Guy Clark is, and we love Guy Clark, and we appreciate him as the artist that he was. But Guy is not a household name. And so anything that we can add to that legacy to bring in new people, to be able to say, here's something new for the people that already love Guy, and here's something you might want to hear if you've never heard of Guy.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CLARK: (Singing) Picking up lines that someone lost upon my street, singing them back. Do the tapping of my feet.
GONYEA: Tamara Saviano is the creative director and president of Guy Clark, LLC, and the Guy Clark Family Foundation. Tamara, thanks for sharing these stories with us.
SAVIANO: Oh, I'm so happy to be here with you, Don. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CLARK: (Singing) I'm looking for the words and say you're really... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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