When My Favorite Picture of You came out in 2013, it seemed likely we were hearing Guy Clark's last batch of songs. Guy died three years later at age 74, but his legacy endures, thanks the efforts of friends and peers who believed in the hard truths and timeless beauty of his music. Anyone who ever saw Guy's workshop—or the re-creation of it at the Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit—no doubt noticed all the tapes on the wall. Cassettes were filled with songs-in-progress over the decades. Stashed away were even more recordings on reel-to-reel.
Those closest to Guy have been combing through those tapes carefully, seeking gems worth passing along to the public. They've found a lot: Truly Handmade is subtitled "Volume 1," indicating there's more to come. If it's anything like this batch of 15 tracks from the early years of Guy's career, his fans will want to hear all of it.
The focus of Truly Handmade is solo acoustic demos, which reveal the early forms of several Clark classics. Rodney Crowell, who produced Clark's 1981 album The South Coast of Texas, chose a few demos from that record, as well as four from Clark's highly acclaimed 1975 debut Old No. 1. His fans may have heard "L.A. Freeway" or "Let Him Roll" or "Lone Star Hotel" dozens of times, but hearing them like this affords a precious peek behind the curtain.
Even more intriguing are songs that were left on the cutting-room floor. Nearly half the songs on Truly Handmade will be new to even longtime fans. A few stretch back to the early '70s, before Guy had ever released an album. Crowell says "Miss Alice Pringle" — a co-write with Clark's wife Susanna — dates back to at least 1972. "That's when I first heard it, and I always wanted him to record it," Crowell says. We also finally get to hear Guy's own version of "Step Inside My House," which gave Lyle Lovett the title of his 1998 album featuring songs by Texans who deeply influenced his own work. Now we get the blueprint of Lovett's graceful rendition, as well as an important historical artifact: Guy claimed this was the first song he ever wrote.
