He never took lessons, opting to learn from a friend who lived down the street. Together, they started sitting in on a Sunday afternoon jam session at Babe’s Bar and Grill. “I knew basic 1-4-5 chords, and then these older guys sort of took us in,” Clark says.
At Babe’s, Clark caught the ear of Clifford Antone, owner of the esteemed Austin blues club Antone’s and mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Before long, Antone had Clark onstage with blues heroes James Cotton, Hubert Sumlin and Pinetop Perkins. “That was my first time playing the Antone’s stage,” says Clark. “I was 15. There are pictures. I still have little X’s on my hands. I had to go to school the next day.”
But when he got to Austin High School the next morning to brag about the royalty he had just noodled around with, nobody knew who he was talking about.
It was emblematic of the splintered musical lives Clark was leading. While he was getting his education in “straight-ahead blues” on the club circuit, he listened to the Wu-Tang Clan and Busta Rhymes with his high school pals. At home, he practiced Motown and Isley Brothers tunes endlessly.
“Instead of trying to separate all of those things, I wanted to throw it all in the pot,” Clark says of his music today. And thankfully, that polyglot approach never sounds contrived. The guitarist says the demo for “Bright Lights” was originally recorded with a drum machine as a hip-hop instrumental. But hip-hop’s intravenous influence on the final product is tough to spot. Still, it’s in there.
And while older fans probably aren’t hearing OutKast or 2Pac in his licks, they have been quick to dub him a savior of the blues. Clark is fine with that, save for the “savior” part. “I think it’s cool that people have confidence in what I’m doing,” he says. “That’s the way I take it . . . It’s great to be recognized as a blues player. I respect the music. I want to tip the hat.”
He also says he doesn’t feel boxed in as he prepares to hunker down and finish his upcoming album. He wants to just let it happen naturally.
“I don’t feel like you can take credit for writing songs,” Clark says. “It’s like tuning into a channel and getting that information and then putting it out. I think it’s about getting the clearest reception and then trying to put it out in the clearest way.”
During the closing solo of “Bright Lights” on Tuesday night, he appears to be doing just that. At a towering 6-foot-5, he stands up on the toes of his black leather boots as he bends the strings of his guitar into pealing ribbons of sound.
It’s as if he’s trying to stand as tall as his music. Or maybe just trying to catch the strongest signal.
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