Golden Gift

Meet Gary Clark Jr. No, not that guy from accounts. Gary Clark Jr, the man being hailed as the second coming of Jimi Hendrix. The man awarded the Golden Corndog award for performing in more major North American music festivals in 2012 than any other musician on the planet. The man who will soon release his debut album Blak And Blu for your listening pleasure. Still not sure who the heck I'm talking about? Take a seat and let me tell you more about him.

At the age of seventeen, the Mayor of Austin, Texas, one of the greatest music cities in the world, proclaimed an entire day in his honour. For this to happen at such a young age, there must be something special about him. There is. He is one of very few people who can realistically claim to be a prodigy. A prodigy both from birth and as a result of his parents' influence. “I grew up listening early on Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations,” he begins. “All soul records. I remember just kinda relaxing and putting them on and dancing around and singing a bit, just having a good time. Those are my earliest memories of music, that's what got me into it.”

Having a good time is what it's all about for Clark Jr. There's no aspect to music that he doesn't enjoy. “I love playing, writing, listening, learning, all of it,” he enthuses. “I've been playing the trumpet a little bit. Trying to get into that and figure it out. [I'm] still very much in training. It's painful actually.” Clark Jr seems to thrive on variety, constantly trying new instruments, new cities and new music. “At the moment I'm listening to hip hop artist Odyssey. I've been listening to Otis Redding, Little Dragon, Nina Simone, Skip James, it's all over the place.”

Rather like the man himself. Generally you'll find the musician on the road, travelling from festival to festival. “I'm fortunate enough to be invited to all those festivals and I have a great time doing it,” Clarke Jr says. “Every one of them is different with a great energy. I don't know how I wound up with the Corndog though. I've heard [Big Day Out is] great, I cannot wait.” His impatience is expressed in words alone, with a southern drawl that is most animated when talking about his debut album Blak And Blu, featuring Clark Jr on guitar, vocals and trumpet, drummer J.J. Johnson, keyboardist Zac Rae, and producer Mike Elizondo on bass on many of the tracks.

Working with other artists is second nature for Clark Jr. He's even been known to share a stage with an Australian or two. “I got to play some shows with Kara Grainger (Australian singer-songwriter, ex-Pap Lips), I caught her sitting at a blues jam.” Sitting around a blues jam in Austin can spark things like that. Things like collaborating with Alicia Keys or The Roots. “I've played with the Roots a couple of times. They're great guys you know, good to hang with, but they're strong musically as well. I got to collaborate with Alicia Keys a bit, that was really good.”

It's really no surprise then that festivals are clamouring to add him to their bill on the back of the release of Blak And Blu, a long-awaited debut for the now-28 year-old. “I'm excited. I'm a bit nervous as the day gets closer just because it's something very close to me that I've been working on for a long time. It's an open, honest expression of what I've wanted to do musically. Overall I'm excited. I'm just ready for it to be out already. [I played it for] my friends here in Austin. There were a couple of surprises, but they were digging it, and I was loving them when they weren't digging it, it was cool.”

From the opening line of the album you get the feeling Clark Jr knows exactly what he is doing, and is confident in his abilities with the track Ain't Messing Around beginning with “I don't believe in competition/Ain't nobody else like me around”. The title track ventures into a modern version of the soul records of his parents' collection. “I'm most proud of Blak And Blu and Next Door Neighbour Blues. They're very different, but I'm equally passionate about them just for what they are.”

Another album highlight is the cover If You Love Me Like You Say/Third Stone From The Sun, with Clark Jr taking ownership of the iconic Hendrix riff. The comparisons to Hendrix are primarily for his musicianship, but the feeling and blues simplicity of his songwriting also nod to the great one, as does his methods of creation. “I don't really have a process,” Clarke Jr mulls. “Sometimes I wish I did, it would make it a lot easier. There's a bunch of scattered thoughts going on in my brain that I'll sit down and play on my guitar or play drums or play whatever instrument. Just play around and kind of experiment with things and start throwing them around. Sometimes things that I think are ok come out of it and sometimes it doesn't work so well. It's just part of the whole process.”

Thankfully producer and collaborator extraordinaire Mike Elizondo was able to get that process on tape. Elizondo seems a perfect match for Clark Jr, having worked with artists as diverse as Dr.Dre, Mastadon, Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor. “We were talking about who would be good to work with and his name came up. I checked him out and we got in a room together and started talking about music and our influences and we have a lot in common.”

Oh, and he can act. Clark Jr starred in the 2007 movie Honeydripper alongside superstar Danny Glover. He plays the saviour of a failing blues club and gets to share his amazing guitar talents. “I loved doing it, but I'm loving playing music, so this is my main focus. I wouldn't mind doing it again if the opportunity came up.” That's Gary Clark Jr for you. Prodigy, mutli instrumentalist, actor, and completely unburdened by it all. He seems accepting of his path, to somehow understand and accept that he has a gift that others want him to share, and he's more than happy to do so. “I'm a music lover, and love to play music.”

Gary Clark Jr will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 27 September - The Tote, Melbourne VIC
Friday 28 September - Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW