Last week, Steve Earle and the Dukes released their 19th album, a tribute to Earle's mentor Guy Clark, aptly titled GUY. Clark passed away in 2016 of lymphoma and was a profound influence on Earl. Our Song of the Day is the album’s lead single, “Dublin Blues,” which first appeared on Clark’s 1995 record of the same name. In 2009, Earle released a tribute record to songwriter Townes Van Zandt. This is what Earle had to say about his mentors in a statement:
"Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark were like Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to me. When it comes to mentors, I’m glad I had both. If you asked Townes what it’s all about, he’d hand you a copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. If you asked Guy the same question, he’d take out a piece of paper and teach you how to diagram a song, what goes where.
"Townes was one of the all-time great writers, but he only finished three songs during the last fifteen years of his life. Guy had cancer and wrote songs until the day he died… he painted, he built instruments, he owned a guitar shop in the Bay Area where the young Bobby Weir hung out. He was older and wiser. You hung around with him and knew why they call what artists do disciplines. Because he was disciplined."
GUY features contributions from Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Terry Allen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mickey Raphael, Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Gary Nicholson, and photographer Jim McGuire.
Watch Steve Earle’s KEXP in-studio performance from 2015 below. Tune in on April 4, 2019 at 7 p.m. to hear a taping of a recent in-studio session with Earle.
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