In 1998, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Eric Taylor appeared on David Letterman’s stage to support a new release from Nanci Griffith.
There are not many times there has been such a collection of talent onstage together since July 21, 1998, when Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker and Eric Taylor appeared together on the Late Show With David Letterman. Griffith had just released the excellent album Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful). And the album featured an all-star version of Guy Clark’s song “Desperados Waiting For a Train.”
Only such an outstanding talent as Griffith could shine even while ceding so much of the song to these other legends of music. On both the album and the Letterman performance, she does not even sing solo until late in the song.
The songwriter Guy Clark starts off the song, and it is clear that the beautiful performance is all about respect. There is Griffith’s respect for Clark’s song and the legendary talent of the other singers. But there is also an amazing amount of respect from those legends for Griffith, coming together for this performance on both the album and on Letterman’s show.
Most who love music of this genre will recognize the big names here for their work as singers and songwriters: Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and Jerry Jeff Walker. But you might or might not recognize Eric Taylor, who is probably the least well-known of the group. Taylor also was a well-respected Texas singer-songwriter, and his songs have been covered by people such as Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith. He also was married to Griffith for 1976-1982. So it is also cool to see Griffith invite her ex for this amazing performance. Taylor passed away less than two years after this performance from liver disease.
Of the group on stage that night, we have also lost Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Letterman clearly knew he was hosting a special gathering on his show at the time, but many may have missed it. We were certainly lucky to have the music of these folks, and extra lucky to have them together for this song.
During the pandemic, I’ve found a special connection to Willie Nelson’s recording of”Hands on the Wheel.”
Early in the pandemic as things seemed to become more insane day-by-day, I turned to music for comfort. And one of the albums I found myself repeatedly listening to was Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. And one song I kept returning to was “Hands on the Wheel.”
Nelson’s concept album recounts the tale of the Stranger who after killing his wife and her lover begins a journey to find redemption. Finally, after much travel, the Stranger’s discovery of peace is relayed in “Hands on the Wheel.”
The album’s final song with words was written by Kentucky raised Will Callery, and the song is often also associated with Jerry Jeff Walker. Nelson’s version also appears at the end of the Robert Redford movie The Electric Horseman (1979).
There is another wonderful version of “Hands on the Wheel” by Carla Bozulich and Willie Nelson on Bozulich’s re-interpretation of the entire Red Headed Stranger album. I’ve also been listening a lot to Bozulich‘s wonderful Red Headed Stranger album too, and I recommend it for fans of Nelson’s album.
I am not sure why the album and this song have grabbed me even more during these times. Maybe even Willie Nelson saw the connection, as online he performed the song with his sons early on during the pandemic. Perhaps it is something subconscious about how “Hands on the Wheel” begins:
At a time when the world seems to be spinnin’ Hopelessly out of control; There’s deceivers, and believers, and old in-betweeners, That seem to have no place to go.
Those lines reflect much of the feeling in the air these days. As the pandemic and the economic devastation bring death and suffering to the world, everything seems out of control with failed leadership. At the same time, when I go on Facebook and elsewhere, I see the deceivers echoing falsehoods about the coronavirus. And that takes place while we shelter, seemingly having no place to go.
It is a pretty depressing opening to a song. Yet, maybe the song also gives us some hope, or I at least I want to believe it does. The singer continues by telling us how in the craziness of the world, he found love, family, faith, and a place in the world.
And I looked to the stars, Tried all of the bars, And I’ve nearly gone up in smoke; Now my hand’s on the wheel, Of something that’s real, And I feel like I’m going home.
And maybe that is it. We have to hang on to whatever is real to try to get through these times. Remember what matters, whatever or whoever that is. And hang onto it for dear life, no matter what the rest of 2020 brings us. Don’t let go. Like the Four Seasons also told us, “hang on to what we’ve got.”
And maybe not today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, but someday we will wake up and feel like we are not yet home — but at last we are heading that way.
Steve Earle has released a wonderful tribute to one of his mentors, Guy Clark, with his album GUY. Yet, the album is a bit of a surprise. Earle has long been outspoken on important issues, incorporating political messages into many of his songs. So, one may wonder why, during a crazy period of American political history, Earle’s new music is largely silent on the issues of the day. The question about why Earle is doing this album at this time is further complicated by the fact that there is already an outstanding multi-artist tribute to Clark. So, why GUY?
During the George W. Bush administration, Earle released the album Just an American Boy (2003), along with a documentary by the same name. The album featured songs criticizing the war, and Earle provoked controversy with his song humanizing “enemy combatant” John Walker Lindh (“John Walker’s Blues”). When Bill Clinton was in the White House, Earle called for Woody Guthrie and other activists to “come back” in “Christmas in Washington.” When Barack Obama was president, Earle sang about a “City of Immigrants.” Going back to the beginning of his career, Earle was never afraid to take on important issues, recording several songs about capital punishment.
But now, as the current occupant sits in the White House, Steve Earle gives us a tribute album for his friend? Really?
What “GUY” Is
Let’s start with the fact that GUY is one of Earle’s best albums in recent years, perhaps since 2004’s The Revolution Starts Now. As a starting point, Guy Clark was one of the great American songwriters, so Earle had a great group of songs from which to choose.
And Earle and the Dukes sound great. Earle and the Dukes, for the most part, do not change a lot in their interpretations of the songs. There are a few exceptions, like a more rocking version of “Out in the Parking Lot.” While Earle does not radically rework “Dublin Blues,” Earle and the band highlight the boasts in the song (“I’ll stand up and be counted”). While Clark’s voice emphasized the sadness in the lyrics.
Throughout the album, the Dukes give new energy to the songs, and the band’s work is a large reason to get this album. The Dukes include Kelley Looney (bass), Ricky Ray Jackson (pedal steel guitar), Eleanor Whitmore (fiddle and mandolin), Chris Masterson (guitar), and Brad Pemberton (drums).
And the world can always use another version of “L.A. Freeway.” It is one of the best songs ever written about leaving somewhere.
GUY is a personal album for Earle. Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt were two important mentors to Earle. Earle has jokingly explained that the reason he made GUY was that he had already created a tribute album of Van Zandt’s songs, Townes(2009). So, he feared meeting Clark in the afterlife and having to explain why he made an album for Van Zandt but not for Clark.
It is a funny story, but perhaps there is a sense of obligation that helps explain why Earle made GUY. And it gives Earle a reason to gather together friends like Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Emmylou Harris to sing Clark’s song, “Old Friends.”
So Come Back Steve Earle, Come Back To Us Now
So, why GUY? Well, Earle crafted a beautiful album of wonderful songs played with energy by the Dukes. And even in troubled times, we need to affirm personal values and our own lives and bonds. Like Earle, who recently saw the ending of his marriage to singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, all of us must trudge on with our own real lives.
So, singing songs about friends, fathers (“Randall Knife”), broken hearts (“Dublin Blues”), old men (“Desperados Waiting for a Train”), and other personal connections is needed in troubled times, perhaps even more than other times. We need to remember our departed friends, as Earle is remembering Guy Clark. We all need sanctuary from the evening news and our lives.
So if you do not have this album, which is one of Earle’s best, get it. He will get around to the political message songs. Earle says he has already been working on such a political album. He plans to release it in time for the 2020 election.
What is your favorite Steve Earle song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In what has become an annual tradition on Chimesfreedom, we wish a happy birthday this week to Willie Nelson, who was born in Abbott, Texas late at night on April 29, 1933. Due to the late hour, the birth was not officially recorded until the next day and his birthday is sometimes reported as April 30. So, Nelson celebrates his birthday on both dates. One of his recordings I love is his wonderful interpretation of Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting For a Train.”
The song “Desperados Waiting For a Train” combines themes of memory, aging, history, and mortality. The singer recounts being friend with an old man when he was a boy.
The singer reports how the old man told him about his youthful days as a drifter working on oil wells. And the young man watches the old man get older. Anyone who as a child has been close to an elderly person or a grandparent may recognize the relationship and admiration. The singer sums it up, “Well to me he was a hero of this country.”
One of the reasons the lyrics ring so true is that Clark based the story on someone he knew. As he explained in a 2011 interview, “It’s a true song about someone in my life – I mean, you couldn’t have made that up. . . . It was about a guy who was like my grandfather.” Clark also recounted how he knew he would write about the man almost as soon as he started writing songs.
Versions of “Desperados Waiting For a Train”
There are several excellent recordings of “Desperados Waiting For a Train.” Guy Clark made a beautiful recording of it, including some live versions. Jerry Jeff Walker released the first recording of the song on his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. Actor Slim Pickens released his own version, where he reads the lyrics like poem over the music.
Willie Nelson took part in an earlier version recorded with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwaymen. Their version that appeared on the super group’s album Highwayman was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.
The more recent version by Nelson alone appeared on a wonderful Guy Clark tribute album, This One’s For Him (2010). At the time, Nelson, like the old man in the song, was “pushin’ eighty.” This version of the singer as an older man looking back on his youthful encounter with old age and death adds a deeper layer to the classic song. Check it out.
For some additional Willie, the Larry King Now website features a recent episode where Larry King interviewed Nelson about music, marijuana, politics, and aging.
Happy birthday Willie, and thanks for the presents to us.
What Willie Nelson song are you playing for his birthday? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In the video below, singer-songwriter Todd Snider tells a wonderful story about hanging out with Jerry Jeff Walker, who wrote the classic “Mr. Bojangles.” And then the songwriter himself — who was born born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942 in Oneonta, New York — appears with Snider to sing the song.
Video of Snider and Walker
It’s great to see Snider on stage with Walker, as they are both very talented artists who do not get near the acclaim they deserve. So it makes me happy to think of the two hanging out at a bar. Check it out.
The Inspiration for “Mr. Bojangles”
In the introduction, Snider jokes about how Walker came out of jail with the song. And he is telling the truth.
Although many mistakenly believe that the song is about the dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Walker was inspired to write the song by a different man. He met the real “Mr. Bojangles” in a New Orleans jail during the Fourth of July weekend in 1965.
I met him in a cell in New Orleans; I was down and out; He looked to me to be the eyes of age, As he spoke right out; He talked of life, talked of life, He laughed, clicked his heels and stepped.
Walker was in the slammer for public intoxication when he met the homeless man who inspired the song. The man did tell Walker the sad story about the dog, and then he danced.
He Said His Name “Bojangles”
According to Wikipedia, the man did tell Walker he went by the name “Mr. Bojangles.” Apparently, he used the name to conceal his real identity from the police.
A 2000 article in the Post and Courier newspaper, though, claims that after Walker met the man in jail, Walker later added the “Bojangles” name. The article says that Walker used a common name used by street dancers in New Orleans. By contrast, Walker’s biography supports that the man in jail did use the name “Bojangles.”
Either way, the song is one of the all-time classics. Many also may have been introduced to the song by Sammy Davis Jr.’s wonderful version. But I wonder whatever happened to the man who inspired the song and whether or not he ever knew a great song was written about him?
In the video below, Jerry Jeff Walker talks to Bruce Robison about writing “Mr. Bojangles” and plays the song. Check it out.
What is your favorite Jerry Jeff Walker song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
. Actor Slim Pickens released 
was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.