Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson on Wednesday, August 3rd at the Bing Crosby Theater
Unfortunately Janet Johnson was ill and she couldn’t perform tonight, so Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson took the stage promptly at 8 o’ clock. They told the crowd they were going to play some songs they wrote, some they knew, and some they didn’t; chuckles filled the theater. From that moment on, that was exactly how the night went… music and laughter. The two had no set list, agenda or plan but they also told us they had no fear. It was an intimate evening of music with people yelling out requests, and Guy and Verlon telling us stories before, during, and after their songs. Guy Clark is spunky and I just fell in love with his personality and music within the first fifteen minutes.
Guy and Verlon had a great chemistry on stage and were constantly poking fun of each other; for example Guy was having a lot of problems with his strings so he kept having to tune them and Verlon mentioned something along the lines of… gez Guy you’re like me, you tune the other five strings to the one out of tune string. Just from watching them perform and interact you could tell they loved doing what they do and they were having just as much fun as we were. Guy Clark even said “Verlon is the shit,” as he introduced him to his solo set where he played a few songs for us including “A Song About A Mare,” because he said he couldn’t go wrong with a song about a horse. Verlon by the way was pickin’ so fast I thought I saw smoke come from his strings… he can wail on the acoustic guitar!
I would say one of my favorite moments of the night was toward the end. People were yelling out requests and a lady in the front row off to the right requested “Rita Ballou” and Guy mentioned how he didn’t know if he could sing the song and how he doesn’t play it much. The lady went on to say how her ex-husband turned her onto the song, and kept pleading him. Guy said alright and sure enough he played it for her and he killed it! The audience was laughing at the end because he said even he was surprised he hit the notes.
A few of the other songs he performed for us tonight included “Boats to Build,” “The Guitar,” “L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “Stuff that Works,” and more. It was a great show and Guy had me laughing the hardest when he said how Spokane was great minus our smoking laws, he said if I have to stand 25 feet from every entrance I might as well smoke in the middle of the intersection!!!
It was an honor to see this Texan singer and songwriter, I had a wonderful time at the show and I am sure the rest of the audience did as well.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
