Season 9 Episode 10 Finale is with the legendary Gus Clark. We catch up with him from his home in Texas. We start the conversation talking about “Some Of My Songs” released by Gus in 2022. The album was actually all done before the pandemic and then couldn’t release the record or do anything with it and not knowing how long the pandemic would last and finally decided that he was going to put it out to the world. So it was released before Gus went out on his Spring Tour in 2022.

As other artists were working on new albums and new material during the pandemic Gus struggled with being creative and working on new songs. Creativity isn’t just something that you can just switch on like a tap, if the well is dry than nothing will come out. It wasn’t until 2022 that Gus decided to get back to it and flex his musical muscles and work on new music.

“You have to learn your own material. Even after playing a song 100 times it still changes”.

You have to reach a point where you are almost sick of your songs because you’ve played them so many times but you have to get to that point where you are comfortable paying them. The experience of listening to a song changes from day to day because of how you feel. Listening to old 78’s and the arranged Nashville sound that Gus has made his own, Gus muses that there needs to be room for subtlety and improvisation and it’s interesting how a song can morph into something else when playing with different musicians from when it was originally recorded.

Gus has been into music since his late teens, playing in punk rock bands and in his early twenties playing on the streets and hitchhiked a lot travelling to where the music he grew up on was actually born. Gus loves to connect with people and throwing himself out there and as a performer he loves it when the audience loves his songs but won’t take it to heart if they don’t.

Touring has changed for Gus, no longer is he sleeping rough and eating terribly. Now he’s eating alright food and sleeping in a van. Gus did 22 states in 2 months in early 2022 with the band and came to the realisation on how touring restores his faith in humanity and playing music to new rooms hundreds and thousands of miles away from home. It’s a reminder on how easy it is to connect to someone through music after being so isolated because of the pandemic.

“People do want to engage, people do want to connect and be generous in what they have to give emotionally from a heartfelt place. in true and honest support”

Gus is always wanting to engage with new people and grow his audience through touring , producing new albums and and adapting his sound so that it not only showcases the best of his talent but also all the musical influences that have shaped him as an artist. I for one am glad that Gus Clark’s musical vision is being shared with the world and would hope that listeners educate their ears by listening to a unique voice in country music.

To listen into the conversation with CloudwatcherUno and Gus click the link below. Also streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict or wherever you listen to your podcasts.