Guy Clark's Latest

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

And here's another good idea: buy Guy Clark's new record, Somedays the Song Writes You. Man, this one's a dandy. (Hear it here.) Sharp, insightful details in the lyrics; a dozen different whiskey rhymes; a Townes Van Zandt cover; half-borrowed melodies that sound familiar and new at the same time; brilliant playing; perfectly, warmly recorded arrangements. That's the thing with a Guy Clark record—everything sounds so...right. This one's no different. Favorite tune? Maybe "Hemingway's Whiskey," in which Clark coldly questions his life's work, drinking and writing, and seems to settle on drinking: "There's more to life than Whiskey, there's more to words than rhymes/ Sometimes nothing works, sometimes nothing shines/ Like Hemingway's whiskey." And raise a glass to Verlon Thompson, who's been playing guitar with Clark for years and, as he tends to do, shines on this record.