MUSIC

Song premieres: Wild Child and Hayes Carll cover Guy Clark on Dualtone anniversary album

Guy Clark in 2013.

Nashville record label Dualtone is celebrating 20 years with a new compilation album, "Amerikinda," that features past and present artists from the storied indie's roster covering each other's songs. 

We are happy to premiere two fantastic new tracks that feature Texas artists covering Lone Star State songwriting legend Guy Clark, who died in 2016

Austin's Wild Child opens the album with a haunting cover of "My Favorite Picture of You," the title track off Clark's Grammy-winning 2013 album.  

Though she's "always known he's a badass" singer Kelsey Wilson said she had never "let (Clark's) songs marinade enough to soak in; and this was a big oversight." 

Wild Child performs at an official 2018 ACL Fest Late Night Show at Stubbs BBQ on October 10, 2018

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"Guy's lyrics in particular are pretty special," she said. "He has an innate ability to find beauty in the small details of life and with all great songwriters offers a unique insight on what those moments mean, and it's beautiful. 'My Favorite Picture of You' is about a literal snapshot memory of his pissed off wife leaving his house while Townes Van Zandt and him were skunked drunk and she had enough of their (expletive). He was able to take his own snapshot of that memory in song form and it's magic.”

Hayes Carll performs during the Long Live Music event on the lawn at the Long Center on November 8, 2020 in Austin, Texas.

"One of my most vivid memories of Guy Clark was hanging out at his house about a week after he had written 'Worry B. Gone' with Gary Nicholson & Lee Roy Parnell," Carll said about the track he contributed to the album. "He was enamored with that incredibly cool guitar riff and he kept playing it over and over. I loved the song —  it's so slinky, greasy and true -—  and I started covering it in my own shows."

A boutique imprint that specializes in folksy songs that play well on AAA radio, Dualtone's early releases included June Carter Cash's Grammy Award-winning album "Wildwood Flower." As the label grew they added "elder statesmen" of songwriting like Clark and Bobby Bare. Popular acts like the Lumineers, Shovels and Rope, and Austin's own Delta Spirit and Shakey Graves have all called the label home. 

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In 2020, the label's headquarters in East Nashville were leveled by a tornado shortly before the pandemic shut down the music industry across the globe, but the label has rebounded. According to a release about the new compilation, it has been "posting some of its all-time best sales and streaming numbers to date."

The compilation also includes Gregory Alan Isakov covering the Lumineers' “Salt and the Sea” and the Lumineers covering Isakov's "Caves," as well as Shakey Graves covering the Wild Reeds' "Cheers" and Shovels and Rope covering Shakey's "Dearly Departed." 

The full album will hit stores and streaming services on August 6.