Cold Dog Soup

Amazon.com
If this front-porchy set disappoints, it's only because, as dean of singer-songwriters, Guy Clark has established such imposing standards. Rather than offering the exacting, patient craftsmanship we've come to expect, many of these new tunes feel like playful ephemera, the result of a friendly all-night song swap--though it hardly hurts if your friends include Emmylou Harris, Verlon Thompson, and Darrell Scott. Closer inspection, however, reveals a more serious purpose. Starting with Steve Earle's "Fort Worth Blues," through "Water Under the Bridge" (in which all things pass away), on to Richard Dobson's "Forever, for Always, for Certain," a recognition of the tricks that time can play, Cold Dog Soup is suffused with visions of mortality. The album ends with three exquisite hymns to life in the face of death. In "Red River," Clark celebrates his family history; in "Die Tryin'" life is defined as risk; and in "Be Gone Forever," penned by Anna McGarrigle and Keith Sykes, Clark finds consolation in memory and music. Even if much of Cold Dog Soup isn't up to Clark's best, this closing autumnal suite, played with devil-may-care élan and joy, certainly is. --Roy Kasten

Tracks:

Cold Dog Soup
Fort Worth Blues
Sis Draper
Ain't No Trouble To Me
Water Under The Bridge
Forever, For Always, For Certain
Men Will Be Boys
Indian Head Penny
Bunkhouse Blues
Red River
Die Tryin'
Be Gone Forever

Amazon.com

If this front-porchy set disappoints, it's only because, as dean of singer-songwriters, Guy Clark has established such imposing standards. Rather than offering the exacting, patient craftsmanship we've come to expect, many of these new tunes feel like playful ephemera, the result of a friendly all-night song swap--though it hardly hurts if your friends include Emmylou Harris, Verlon Thompson, and Darrell Scott. Closer inspection, however, reveals a more serious purpose. Starting with Steve Earle's "Fort Worth Blues," through "Water Under the Bridge" (in which all things pass away), on to Richard Dobson's "Forever, for Always, for Certain," a recognition of the tricks that time can play, Cold Dog Soup is suffused with visions of mortality. The album ends with three exquisite hymns to life in the face of death. In "Red River," Clark celebrates his family history; in "Die Tryin'" life is defined as risk; and in "Be Gone Forever," penned by Anna McGarrigle and Keith Sykes, Clark finds consolation in memory and music. Even if much of Cold Dog Soup isn't up to Clark's best, this closing autumnal suite, played with devil-may-care élan and joy, certainly is. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews:

Don't you wish you could write like him?.......2006-06-03

Cold Dog Soup is typical Guy Clark; literate, tuneful, wry, funny, brilliantly crafted, wonderfully played. Opening with the title tune, Clark's images invade your mind and don't let you go. Fort Worth Blues and Sis Draper follow inviting the listener on a journey with a group of fascinating characters. Men will be boys takes a playful putdown and turns it into a celebration of helling around sung as a bunch of guys having way too much fun.
"The only difference between men and the boys
is the size of their feet and the price of their toys"

Very well played, lots of great guitar and mandolin playing. Highly recommend

Poet at Heart.......2005-12-20

Guy Clark's country roots and West Texas idiom are so disarming that a casual listener might miss the sly literate quality of his songs. Who else gets away with talking about William Butler Yeats and Townes Van Zandt in the same breath? Clark has a poet's instincts and a sense of image unsurpassed by his contemporaries, most of whom are numbered among his admirers. And there is no finer side man around than Verlon Thompson, whose picking is as clean and fresh as a summer morning. God bless this music.

found another winner.......2005-10-18

Guy Clark was new to me, believe it or not. Found it at my library and checked it out...within 3 hrs I ordered it from Amazon. This is my kind of music and plan to check out simular artist & ALL of Clark's.

Great word pictures and plenty of pleasant listening.......2005-06-07

This is the first full CD I've heard by Clark (borrowed from my local library) though I knew his name from the Highwaymen's cover of "Desperados Waiting on a Train". Judging from the inclusion of others of his catalogue on Listmania's invoking "Sad Bastard Music", this is apparently a bit of an anomaly for him.

Regardless of the fact that several tunes here involve musings on mortality, it's not of the "woe is me, I'm gonna die" variety. The philosophy expressed is more "Since we die eventually, live NOW". I don't think of the word "melancholy" here...I'd call it "reflective but joyful".

Clark is a definite wordsmith (check the title track for some of the best images.."Ginsberg and Kerouac shootin' dice and playin' Ramblin' Jack's guitar" and "At the door sat Tom Waits/In a pork pie hat and silver skates/Jugglin' three collection plates" [though I'm uncertain why he felt the need to toss in the gratuitious religious epithet at the end]) and has a wonderfully soulful "lived in" voice. On many of the songs, it's nicely matched with harmonies from Verlon Thompson and Darrell Scott (and Emmylou Harris on a couple tracks).

HIGHLIGHTS:
The picture of downhome feminism in "Sis Draper" ("Uncle Cleve dropped his jaw/Said she's the best I ever saw/She must be from Arkansas") is set to an addictive jig. If there IS a melancholy tune here, "Forever,for always, for certain" is it: a rumination on the difficulty of finding lasting love. ("Forever don't mean much in passing/Forgotten don't mean that it's done") "Indian Head Penny" is a counterpart to Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I Am a Town", letting the tiny tender relate its travels through the hands of children, hobos, and bank robbers. ("I rolled off the San Francisco mint in 1909/The last one they ever made, you should've seen me shine") "Men will Be Boys" is a folkie take on Mars vs. Venus. "Die Tryin'" encapsulates a lesson to a life well lived. ("What's the use in dyin' if you don't die tryin'?/If you don't die tryin', what's the use?")

LOWS:
While I think calling them "lows" is a bit harsh, I'd say I find myself least involved in "Fort Worth Blues" but that's more because of my personal prejudice in favour of strong choruses than any "shortcomings" of the song's. I just like a catchy hook in my songs usually and this one (a cover of Steve Earle) is more of a long narrative than a verse-chorus-verse style ditty.

BOTTOM LINE:
If you love singer-songwriters, you should love this. If you have anything by Mary Chapin-Carpenter, John Prine, or Richard Thompson in your collection, you owe it to yourself to give him a listen. Tasty bluegrass tinged country/folk with some meat to the lyrics.

Is there a bad Guy Clark CD?.......2003-12-10

Of course not. And this is another great one. Just stop putzing around and buy it.

Average customer rating:

Cold Dog Soup tastes so good and sounds so living!

Song Peddler
Cold Dog Soup
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Blues | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000G8P9I4
Release Date: 2006-04-18

Tracks:

Cold Dog Soup
Miss Thang
Shade of My Heart
Don't Bug Me
Painkillers
Full Tilt Boogie
Step Back
Nowhere Fast
Who's Da Bitch Now
Nightwatchman
Why Buy the Rozes
Putin' That Kiss
Hula Pie
Cosmic Cowboy
U Don't Luv Me Anymore
Take Me Drunk
Love at the Stoplight

Customer Reviews:

Cold Dog Soup tastes so good and sounds so living!.......2007-01-16

Cold Dog Soup rocks the Blues and Blues the rocks with that "perfect roughness" we love the Blues for.

Music Album:

Music Album