LATEST...

Terry Clarke
'Night Ride to Birmingham' Terrapin TRPCD1506

Night Ride to Birmingham is the new album by Anglo/Irish writer/singer Terry Clarke, his first since 2002’s Green Voodoo

Terry Clarke's music is infused with the warm, breezy subtleties of Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael, the rough-hewn, hard-living country of Johnny Cash and the kind of street poetry and vivid imagery that make him one of the most important writers of his generation.

Whether he is calling up the spirit of the blues, tearing through a good, honest rock & roll song, introducing you to one of his flesh, blood and bone character studies or breaking your heart with a lonesome lament his work has the weight of history behind it - the history that gave us Son House, Dion, Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Webb and Mercer - but his work pulses with a contemporary heart that continues to make his music full of surprises.

Clarke's friendship with one of Austin's favourite adopted sons, Wes McGhee, led to the two of them getting together in the studio to produce Night Ride to Birmingham - a flashing, neon, jukebox of an album full of rockabilly swing, rock & rollers, and homages to Clarke's heroes such as Johnny Burnette, Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, Elvis and Laura Nyro. As their fans will attest McGhee and Clarke are natural allies both on stage and in the studio, with a shared musical language and this album marks a new and exciting phase in their long relationship.

His writing in the blues field for Michael Messer’s highly acclaimed recent Lucky Charms album has received high praise from critics and fans alike.

Several tracks on Night Ride to Birmingham hark back in style and energy to Clarke’s early recorded work; 1988’s Call Up A Hurricane (cut in Austin, Texas with Flaco Jimenez & J.D. Foster ), 1993’s Rhythm Oil - The Sessions. The latter featured sleeve notes written by Johnny Cash which quoted extensively from Terry’s own song lyrics ...

“P.S. Don’t squeeze the trigger, if you can’t stand the re-coil” ... (sic)

(The above quote is often erroneously credited to Johnny Cash. Whereas in fact Cash was quoting directly from Clarke's own lyric 'Cannonball Blues' © Bucks Music)

Those lyrics have recently developed added poignancy for Clarke - he wrote them in the waterside home of his good friend Jesse ‘Guitar’ Taylor on Lake Travis, Austin, Texas in the spring of 1992. An afternoon spent examining Jesse’s gun collection led to Terry writing ‘Cannonball Blues’. Jesse passed away after a long illness in March of this year but he did get to hear this album and he loved it ... “Man! you and Wes should have recorded together years ago!”

The title track of Night Ride to Birmingham is an homage to Cash. The lyric was written by journalist/writer Kathryn Lay based on Terry’s memories of travelling to Birmingham to see his first Johnny Cash concert in 1969.

It also features two titles co-written with his friend; the Tampa, Florida based Ronny Elliott.

His new writing and live shows display a much harder edge than has been evident in recent years and have seen him returning to playing some electric guitar ( something he hasn’t done since his rock band Domino Effect in the 80’s ) ... a Gretsch, like his early rock ‘n’ roll hero Eddie Cochran.

“ As I get older I am more amazed and fascinated by what the likes of Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, Dion DiMucci and many others did all of those years ago. These days I love what Joe Ely, Chris Isaak and Rosie Flores do with those base materials ... mix them up and create something new which catches the light in a different way.”

“I don’t wear a hat but if I did I’d take it off to all of them, these songs try to say ‘Thank you’.” Terry Clarke 2006

What they say about Terry Clarke

" ... with his tall, erect posture, black jeans, blue shirt, flicked back wavy hair, lean features, mean, turned down mouth, lightning quick smile and big, fat 12-string guitar, Clarke inhabited the stage of the Half Moon with the presence of a gunslinger or a young Johnny Cash ... Clarke is as genuine as, say, Van Morrison ... he smelted Irish and Texan influences into a hard-edged white man's soul ... "
Douglas McPherson, Country Music People

"... Green Voodoo continues to intellectually work the ground that is a marriage of the music of his ancestral Ireland and America's mystical south - Clarke's true love. This is ‘Celticana’ if you will. In the world of Celticana, this collection is the yardstick. A touchstone. A bright shiny gem ... if The Shelly River has been judged a classic , then with Green Voodoo, Clarke has blasted the ball out of the park once again.
Arthur Wood 'Folkwax' on Green Voodoo

" ...the title track kicks things off, Clarke's trademark mournful growl backed by the soft sway of country-tinged sounds that nevertheless sound quite unlike anything else ... you could as easily be in a sweaty club in downtown New Orleans as on a Galway hillside.This is a dreamy, gently-rocking set with great tunes (Wild Honey Blues for instance) and one that could finally bring Clarke into the deserved big time "
Nick Dalton Maverick on Green Voodoo

"... refreshing, earthy, bare-bones blues ... gut-bucket rural rock..."
Johnny Cash sleevenotes for Rhythm Oil

"Terry Clarke is the new Van Morrison. -
Nick Dalton, Daily Express

"...he sang like his heart belonged in Sligo, Ireland, and his bones
were happiest in Austin, Texas.
"He got you thinking of bloodlines and relations, of epic sessions and shorelines,
expanses of space and time." -
Stuart Bailie, New Musical Express. Sleevenotes for The Heart Sings

"Drawing a line directly between Austin and Sligo what followed was
one of the most consumate displays of the art of songwriting I have witnessed.
Shaun Belcher Flyin' Shoes