Songs: L.A. Freeway, Texas-1947, Like A Coat From The Cold, Heartbroke, the Last Gunfighter Ballad, Better Days, Homegrown Tomatoes, She Ain't Goin' Nowhere, South Coast Of Texas, That Old Time Feeling, A Little Of Both, Out In The Parking Lot, Let Him Roll, Texas Cookin', Desperados Waiting For A Train

Personnel: Guy Clark--vocals and guitar; Travis Clark--harmony vocals and bass; Verlon Thompson--harmony vocals and guitar; Suzi Ragsdale--harmony vocals and accordion; Darrell Scott--harmony vocals, guitar, mandolin, dobro, dulcimer, and Weissenborn; Kenny Malone--drums and percussion

The Lonestar State has given the music world some fine songwriters over the years -- from Buddy Holly and Willie Nelson to Lyle Lovett and Townes Van Zandt (and countless others in between) -- but there's one West Texan whose songs are more well-known than the writer himself, and that guy is Guy Clark. And now he has a new recording of mostly old songs with the appropriate title Keepers, and all of the songs on this CD are definitely that -- keepers.

Living in Nashville for the past 25 years fortunately has not cramped Guy Clark's writing style, and he still sounds like he spends most of his time in honky-tonks until all hours of the morning. And this time around he is literally in the honky-tonks, as Keepers is a live recording from Nashville's Douglas Corner, and one of the good things about this live recording is that during the intros you get to hear where the inspiration for some of these songs came from.

Keepers opens with LA Freeway, a song about trying to get out of Tinseltown, which was covered by Jerry Jeff Walker many years back. Texas -- 1947 is about the first time Guy saw a train as a kid, and Like A Coat From The Cold is a slow love song. Heartbroke is an up-tempo swing number that was a hit for Ricky Scaggs, The Last Gunfighter Ballad is a self-explanatory tale of a shoot-out, and Better Days is a song about hope. Then comes the hilarious Homegrown Tomatoes, one of the truest love songs ever written, to paraphrase the writer. She Ain't Goin' Nowhere is Guy's favorite song, and he says it is about "10 seconds in a woman's life." South Coast Of Texas, with a squeezebox, has a delightful Marty Robbins feel to it, and That Old Time Feeling, full of metaphors, is Guy's very first "kept" song. A Little Of Both is a whimsical ditty that was written with one of his backup singers, Verlon Thompson, and Out In The Parking Lot was written with sideman Darrell Scott, it a more deft description of what goes on at country bars, or as Guy says, it is the "anti-Boot Scootin' Boogie song." Let Him Roll is a sad ballad about a man who turns to drink when he loses the woman he loves, and Texas Cookin' is as fun as the title sounds. Finally, there is the Clark classic Desperados Waiting For A Train, written about his grandma's boyfriend, the man who taught Guy everything he knows.

The title Keepers refers to songs that Guy has kept in his repertoire and has been singing for years. You will be familiar with some of them having been recorded by other artists, yet there is nothing like hearing these songs recorded live by the writer himself with his husky, cigarette-and-whiskey-soaked voice. Plus his band consists of many of the same people who are on Darrell Scott's Aloha From Nashville CD (including Scott himself), so if you are wary of live recordings you need not be here. Guy Clark's songs and voice combined with a dynamite backup band makes Keepers one CD you'll want to hang onto.