Walker Jerry Jeff

Old friends Walker, Clark, reunite on Rockport stage

When it comes to building a guitar or writing a song, there is quite a bit of difference, said Clark.

One skill sits in the right brain and the other talent lingers more on the left. But creative magic being what it is they have their similarities in that when inspiration comes along, it can't be denied. That, and both skills take a lot of work and a whole lot of time.

Once, Clark built a guitar that trumped all his others. It had a ring to it that none of the others could quite compare to, even though Clark himself can't put his finger on it.

"I had one guitar that probably was the best guitar I ever played, and I don't even really know why," he said. "I make these one at a time so it's always different with every guitar when I'm making it."

"There are some similarities as far as imagination," he added about the creative process. "but another similarity is how each has a different sound and sometimes they are the best and you just don't know why."

Clark began whittling his own toys while growing up in the west Texas town of Monahans. He then moved to Robstown where most of the songs he learned were in Spanish. Since that time he's written a multitude of hits including "Heartbroke" for Ricky Scaggs, "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting For A Train" for Jerry Jeff Walker and recorded songs like "Texas Cookin'," "Texas, 1947" and "South Coast of Texas" for himself.

But for a guy who writes songs for a living, he says very little about himself and is even less inclined to tell a story, especially on his longtime friend, Jerry Jeff Walker.

"I don't think so," he said and kind of chuckled. "I do have a story on (Walker), but I'm not good at telling stories on other people."

Jerry Jeff Walker, on the other hand, will tell you a story or two about the creator of Gonzo journalism and the inspiration behind the name of Walker's former group, The Lost Gonzo Band.

His name was Hunter S. Thompson.

But, Walker will only roll out the tame stories, of course.

"I went there (Hunter's home) and lost my wallet and I didn't notice until I got down to Denver because I got up and realized I was running late," he said. "When I left I didn't say anything to Hunter, I just left. I got down to Denver and needed to rent a car, but I forgot my wallet. I was on tour and I had to really juggle my schedule around, and it turned out later that it was way down in his couch somewhere. (Thompson) said, 'You know it couldn't have been a safer place.' You know, with all his guns ...

Gypsy Scholar: Jerry Jeff Walker: "Little Bird"

Walker's real name is Ronald Clyde Crosby, and he was born upstate from New York City in Oneonta during the Second World War (specifically, March 16, 1942). He first got into folk music, like Bob Dylan, and I believe that they knew each other during their time in Greenwich Village in the mid-1960s -- for one of Dylan's early albums has a version of Walker's "Bojangles." He got interested in jazz in the late 1960s and moved away from folk music, eventually settling on a jazz-influenced country sound, and he came to associate himself with the aforementioned country outlaws in Austin, Texas, where he began making music in the 1970s. That's about the same time that I moved to Texas to attend Baylor University, only 90 miles from Austin, and began to listen to Walker.

I'm currently employed full time at Ewha Womans University, teaching courses on essay composition, research papers, and cultural issues. In the autumn 2008 semester, I also taught a graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology, a real treat for me since I had long wanted to teach about my doctoral research area. My doctorate actually is in history, technically in history of science at U.C. Berkeley, but my thesis is on John's gospel and Gnostic texts. I've gone from the Arkansas Ozarks through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel to South Korea. I've traveled to Mexico, Belgium, Holland, East Germany, England, France, Denmark, Austria, Czechoslovakia (before it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Russia, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Scotland. Hence: "Gypsy Scholar.

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