Raven's 2014 two-fer An American Dream: 1978-1992 begins with 1978's Guy Clark, the first record the Texas singer/songwriter recorded for Warner, and ends with 1992's Boats to Build, a record he released on Asylum/Elektra. Missing from this run is 1989's Old Friends, an album he cut for Sugar Hill -- a folk indie that'd become his home in the '90s -- but otherwise this is a complete portrait of Clark's salad days on a major label, featuring the aforementioned pair of LPs in their entirety along with 1981's The South Coast of Texas and 1983's Better Days. His first two albums, 1975's Old No. 1 and 1976's Texas Cookin', may be Clark's peak but these four records were also recorded in his prime, when he was writing songs that became standards and was also given a bigger production budget that often suited him. Whatever missteps there might be -- and if there are missteps, they're small, easily forgettable ones -- this amounts to a rich body of work that's even more alluring when packaged as this two-CD set.
Guy Clark
An American Dream: 4 Classic Albums, 1978-1992
Share on
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Track Listing - Disc 1
| Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4:12 | |||||
| 2 | 4:17 | |||||
| 3 | 3:15 | |||||
| 4 | 3:48 | |||||
| 5 | 3:26 | |||||
| 6 | 3:49 | |||||
| 7 | 3:08 | |||||
| 8 | 4:04 | |||||
| 9 | 4:01 | |||||
| 10 | 2:34 | |||||
| 11 | 3:26 | |||||
| 12 | 3:04 | |||||
| 13 | 3:44 | |||||
| 14 | 3:12 | |||||
| 15 | 3:48 | |||||
| 16 | 3:02 | |||||
| 17 | 3:08 | |||||
| 18 | 2:54 | |||||
| 19 | 2:35 | |||||
| 20 | 3:20 |
Track Listing - Disc 2
| Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:40 | |||||
| 2 | 3:02 | |||||
| 3 | 2:58 | |||||
| 4 | 3:14 | |||||
| 5 | 4:10 | |||||
| 6 | 3:14 | |||||
| 7 | 2:27 | |||||
| 8 | 3:18 | |||||
| 9 | 2:48 | |||||
| 10 | 3:31 | |||||
| 11 | 2:49 | |||||
| 12 | 2:56 | |||||
| 13 | 3:35 | |||||
| 14 | 3:49 | |||||
| 15 | 2:57 | |||||
| 16 | 3:52 | |||||
| 17 | 2:40 | |||||
| 18 | 3:40 | |||||
| 19 | 3:00 | |||||
| 20 | 2:53 |
