Time can be a motivator, but for Santa Margarita-based singer/songwriter Shawn Clark, it granted him perspective.
Originally from Texas, Clark grew up playing guitar since he was 12 years old, jamming in garage rock bands and playing “post hardcore” music with friends. In his early 30s, he began experimenting with folk influences, and before moving to the Central Coast five years ago, Clark spent a lot of time with his grandfather, who listened to classic country greats like Hank Williams Sr., George Jones, and Johnny Cash.
“He listened to all that stuff,” Clark said. “When I moved out here, he had just passed, and I was missin’ him and missin’ my family, so I just started listening to the kind of music he was listening to.”
There was something familiar about that kind of country, Clark said, from the beautiful simplicity of the chord structures to the heartfelt vocal melodies. He started learning the iconic songs of Williams and Cash, exploring the genre through some of its most characteristic voices.
One artist stuck out among all the others though, Townes Van Zandt, Clark said.
“Townes Van Zandt does this version of ‘Dead Flowers’ by the Rolling Stones,” he said. “I did that song, and I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ That’s kind of how I dipped my toe into country music.”
After he put together a whole set list of country songs, Clark approached a bar in Atascadero. The venue couldn’t pay him, but he was willing to play for free beer.
He’s performed on the Central Coast ever since, and the Santa Margarita-based artist is playing more gigs in Santa Barbara County. He has an upcoming show at Bottlest Winery, Bar, and Bistro in Buellton, as part of the venue’s live music series, Crafted. Clark has performed there before, and said it’s a good venue for his bare-bones solo sets.
“It’s just a fun gig,” he said. “I don’t know anybody down there, but I like Bottlest, it’s a really kind of neat hidden-away place, but it’s a good spot.”
Clark sings with a smooth baritone, reminiscent of artists like Van Zandt and others who explored heartache and country life over strumming acoustic guitars.
Once he immersed himself in the style, experiences in life inspired Clark to write his own songs that emulated the truth telling of country’s great artists.
“I went through a major relationship change, somebody left me, so I kind of decided to write about it and get the pain out that way,” he said. “I didn’t realize that I needed country music so much at that point, but I did. It pretty much saved me.”
Before he knew it, Clark had an album on his hands. A small group of collaborators were a part of the project and went on tour with him after its release, which he calls the Shawn Clark Family Band. The first album was titled Tumbleweed, which he followed up with Cactus Rose in 2016.
For the past year or so though, Clark has been “kind of on haitus,” he said. He’s working on starting a business and just got married a couple weeks ago, he said.
“I’ve been still playing a lot of shows, but I decided I needed to get married and start a business,” he said. “So now what I’m doing is kind of revamping the band and getting a third album, which should be out by the end of the year.”
Looking back on his beginnings in music and growing up in Texas, it’s a bit of a suprise that Clark even went toward country music. It was all around him growing up, he said, so he turned to other music in youthful rebellion.
“I kind of always hated country, I really didn’t like it, I was a rock and roll guy,” he said. “But I think really what I was searching for was something real. I love real music. I love when somebody can share their heart but also do it in a very artistic way and be real about where they’re at in life.”
Clark said that the “old time” country artists like Williams, Van Zandt, and Jones really grabbed him with their songwriting.
“It’s just deeper than any music I’ve ever heard,” he said.
He also said that being from Texas, and having a “twang” to his low voice led him there naturally.
“I didn’t really want to get into it,” he said. “It just felt like it was an old shoe that fit really well that I might as well put on.”
That’s why his music doesn’t sound like commercial country, but the stripped-down folk style at the heart of the tradition. Going for that “real” sound doesn’t just mean steel strings and wooden guitars, but opening up about his personal life in his lyrics.
Like most country artists, Clark’s songwriting is largely biographical. From the painful breakup to life on the road, exploring those feelings with his songs is something he finds therapeutic.
“Sometimes you have something inside of you, and I can’t get rid of it until I write about it,” he said. “If there’s something I can’t stop thinking about, if I write a song about it, I can get it out of my head. And now, it’s kind of encompassed in that song, and I don’t have to think about it or worry about it anymore, it’s just there in that song. It’s weird.”
After emulating the artists that brought him around to country music in Tumbleweed and Cactus Rose, Clark is looking to do something a bit different with the album he has in the works now. He wants to fuse all the influences that brought him to where he is today.
“This album, I just want it to be exactly what I always wanted to do,” he said. “I want it to be very western sounding, a little southwestern sounding, but a little bit experimental, kind of throw in who I am rather than just being straight country. Throw in my experiences from my Nirvana days, not that it’s going to sound like Nirvana, but just be a little more experimental with this album and see what I can do.”
In the meantime, you can find Clark performing regular gigs solo across the Central Coast, like his upcoming show at Bottlest. He often plays at Luna Red in San Luis Obispo, too. He will bring a band together for a performance at the Midstate Fair, on the Mission stage.
While he has the freedom to explore many styles as a solo performer, Clark constantly comes back to the familiar feeling of country music, he said.
“I have an affinity for that style and it’s always going to be a part of me.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne never left his folky phase. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 5, 2018.