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The Shelly River

TERRY CLARKE
THE SHELLY RIVER
CATFISH RECORDS

Terry, whose from Berkshire, first released 'The Shelly River' in 1991 and as he says
on the sleeve " with limited distribution and availability". That doesn't mean that his work is unknown by any means, Ron Kavana recorded 'The Edge of Shamrock City' and Ronny Elliott, who's from Tampa, Florida recorded 'Irish Rockabilly Blues' - having taken the songs from this album.

The music here is very Irish, reflecting Clarke's heritage. Songs and sounds that
remind me of an acoustic Hothouse Flowers, if that makes any sense, and as always
with new acoustic music from Ireland there's a subtle presence of Van the Man.
The album is very well recorded, a mixture of digital programming and 'real' instruments, Clarke's acoustic guitar being left to sound wooden and rich in tone, and like a lot of 'new Irish' it cleverly keeps one foot in the past and one in the present.
He has an excellent voice that has been captured well by engineer and co-producer John Burns.

Pick of the songs? The dark 'This Town's Too Small', 'Irish Rockabilly Blues', some
great percussion programming here, 'Detroit to Dingle' reflecting younger days and
'Song of the Streets', another look over his shoulder.

'The Shelly River' is well recorded, Clarke's a dab hand at lyrics, nice clean
production which this kind of album needs and there's that similarity to Hothouse
Flowers without being a copy. Not hard to hear why the album's surfaced again.

Tim Andersen
Get Rhythm 2001

Terry Clarke - The Shelly River
(Catfish Records)

It's seemingly taken a little direct action by the artiste to get this 1991
set back on the shelves. Mired in the contractual uncertainty of past deals
it's my understanding that this release has been done on a get it out and
suffer the consequences basis. Let's praise the cavaliers involved as this
album, one of the very best of the past twenty years - really - more than
deserves mass availability.

It's the album on which Reading's Terry Clarke, generally unheralded
national treasure and cult artiste in Austin, Texas, found his true voice.
Previously his stock in trade was a kind of high grade Americana,
beautifully constructed paeans to a culture he was a keen observer of rather
than one he was born of.

That said it's also clear that Terry was a good half decade ahead (and a head and shoulders taller than many) of the glut of alt country minstrels currently harvesting plaudits.
For ‘The Shelly River’ the songs came not from observations, not from emotional jolts but from the blood. Or rather bloodline, Terry's father was an Irish emigrant to England.

In his sleeve notes Clarke writes of his father's walking the roads looking or work in situations as far apart as winter cold Lincolnshire fields and excavating the London underground. It's the tales these experiences sired, and the strength of Clarke's heritage that power the songs.

Songs that touch every facet of the Irish / Celtic experience, the unique, inexplicable culture that travels so well - "they say that when you cross the equator they dip you in a tub of brine / What happens in the ether when you cross that Celtic line" (Johnnie's On The Road). And what songs they are; Sligo Honeymoon 1946's vivid picture of his parents, American Lipstick with its potent, prosaic contrast of the experiences of Irish who settled in Detroit and those who remained, and the longing the links them "when he left here he smoked Sweet Afton, now he smokes Lucky Strike but if he walked in here he could smoke anything he liked" whilst Detroit To Dingle's adroit examination of the pull of 'home' on Irish Americans and the legacy of its religious traditions telling. But picking out songs like this is to miss the point; each of The Shelly River's fifteen gems is a treasure of acute observation, crafted with a fine writer's care and set to melodies you'll never shake.

Terry's made a good half dozen albums since this and is presently preparing
another, none are easy to find though www.terryclarke.com might help when
it's fully up and running, but this is without any doubt the desert island choice.

Steve Morris
NetRhythms 2001

The Shelly River

The 1997 album, 'The Heart Sings', was one of the best country albums to emerge from the U.K.
Clarke wrote powerful, impassioned songs and he performed them with verve and panache. Several of the songs - 'Detroit To Dingle', 'The Shelly River', 'The Edge of Shamrock City', 'American Lipstick' and 'Irish Rockabilly Blues' - had appeared on his 1991 collection 'The Shelly River'.


Now to thoroughly confuse us, comes a reissue of 'The Shelly River' with no additional tracks or outtakes but with a new booklet.

I enjoyed 'The Shelly River' when it first appeared but now the songs are like demos for 'The Heart Sings' album. Indeed, Terry Clarke is playing all the instruments himself.
Irish Rockabilly Blues' has a lot more bite on 'The Heart Sings', while 'American Lipstick' benefits from a duet vocal with Rosie Flores.

He was also performing with more confidence on 'The Heart Sings'. He knew that Butch Hancock had praised his work and put 'American Lipstick' into his repertoire and he knew the songs that much better.


The one advantage of the 1991 album is that the duplicated songs are placed in context. The album was inspired by a photograph of his parents on honeymoon in Sligo in 1946: "the morning of the night of the conception of me". Several songs are developed from his father's memories of growing up in Sligo, taking boat journeys to Liverpool and finding work in the UK. There's a touching song of Catholic guilt in 'This Town's Too Small'. 'The Leaving of Sligo' is about his aunt leaving for America, 'Detroit To Dingle' tells of an American cousin who is a priest, and 'Sea Song' relates to his own musical adventures with a Van Morrison impression thrown in.

'The Heart Sings' is the better purchase, but 'The Shelly River' is still a fine album - and a long one!

Spencer Leigh

'Country Music People' Dec 2001

The Shelly River Catfish Records

This is actually a re-release of a 1991 lost classic. Terry Clarke is an Irish singer-songwriter. Johnny Cash is a fan and Butch Hancock has covered his songs live. This is Irish roots kicking off with "Irish Rockabilly Blues", visiting "The Edge Of Shamrock City" along the way to "Sligo Honeymoon 1946" before finishing on "Hometown" and "Song Of The Streets". The American side of the roots is represented in "Sea Song" as the whole equation is laid bare with lines such "I played Elvis on a Mandolin on the night boat to Rosslare". "American Lipstick" and "Detroit to Dingle" continue to bridge that Atlantic gap. The songs are of a very high calibre and I suggest anyone who has been bewitched by Irish roots may find this a memorable purchase. This is a fine, fine album well deserving it's re-release, and were it not for the juggernaut release of Mr Adams' Gold this would sit as album of the month.

Alt Country.com 2001

Terry Clarke 'The Shelly River' Catfish Records

To those unfamiliar with Terry Clarke, his music conjures up visions of an Irish Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young. This isn't to suggest that his music is derivative — it isn't. Only that his voice and the basic arrangements recall Springsteen and Young chasing ghosts with acoustic guitars. Originally released in 1991, The Shelly River received limited circulation and then dropped out of sight until Catfish decided to reissue it in 2001. A quick glance at the 14 selections, including "Irish Rockabilly Blues" and "The Edge of Shamrock City," reveals a music rooted in Clarke's native land and memories. "This Town's Too Small" paints a portrait of the quietly desperate, remaining in a place that holds nothing for them, while the curiously named "American Lipstick" offers a story of an Irish friend's experience in the U.S. Indeed, Clarke enjoys telling stories and avoids the usual singer/songwriter pitfalls by making his material universal to all human experience. Other nice tracks include the title track and a lovely "Sligo Honeymoon 1946," both highlighted by relaxed acoustic guitars and mandolins. The integrated sound, along with Clarke's warm and rough vocals, make placing The Shelly River in the CD player an easy and familiar task. This disc will be appreciated by anyone who enjoys fine acoustic music presented with sincerity.

Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. allmusic.com

Terry Clarke
The Shelly River Catfish CTACD 208EP

Originally released in 1991 on the Mindoka label, The Shelly River has achieved some sort of immortality in the intervening 10 years. If proof was needed that good songs endure and creep into the minds and hearts of people stirring emotions and revealing memories long forgotten, this is it.
English singer-songwriter Terry Clarke explored his Co Sligo family roots and came up with the Shelly River, a song cycle that spanned Ireland, New Orleans and England and back again. Those songs including The Leaving of Sligo and The Last Summer at Cloonacool and Sligo Honeymoon 1946 fused the best elements of Texas singer/ songwriter Townes Van Zandt and Joe Ely with highly evocative re-tellings of stories both true and fictional yet rooted in the truth with a simple unadorned honesty.

Recorded simply with Clarke's voice accompanied by accoustic guitar, mandolin and soft drum programmes, the result was surprisingly direct and refreshing. Like his contemporary and musical blood brother, Ron Kavana, Terry Clarke has absorbed a wealth of influences from Memphis soul to Texan country balladry and Irish folk lyricism to arrive at a highly personalised yet accessible style of music and delivery. Some 10 years later, The Shelly River still cuts to the bone and refreshes parts others daren't reach.

John O'Regan The Irish Music Magazine May 02

TERRY CLARKE
The Shelly River
Little Bear Records

This extraordinary album by Irish singer-songwriter Terry Clarke had a limited release in 1991 and then disappeared into the stuff of rumor and legend. Now that it is available widely for the first time, I give it my highest recommendation for anyone in search of brilliant, richly detailed song-stories presented in simple, but compelling arrangements that draw you in and never let you go throughout the 75-minute set.
Family separation, borne of emigration, is a theme that runs through several of these songs. Clarke sings "The Leaving of Sligo" from the point of view of someone in the process of reluctantly leaving for a new home in I)etroit. Later, in the moving "American Lipstick," he sings from the point of view of a parent back in Ireland longing to see the son in America at Christmas time. In "Raining All Over the World," Clarke captures the longing of all exiles for the place they think of as "home."
The making of; and listening to, music is another prominent theme in several songs. In "Sea Song," Clarke recalls both the joys of learning to play both the popular rock 'n' roll of his youth and the traditional music favored at his family's ceilidhs. "Johnnie's On The Road (From The North Country)" is about a journeyman musician traveling from one small gig to another.
There are also several beautiful love songs. In "Last Summer At Cloonacool," Clarke's protagonist recalls falling in love last summer as he proposes at Christmastime. "Sligo Honeymoon 1946," inspired by a photograph included in the booklet, is Clarke's interpretation of his parents as newlyweds. This album is a classic. MR

Sing Out Vol. 46 #1 Spring 2002

TERRY CLARKE The Shelley River (Mindokal CD only)

A resident of the Thames Valley, but with bits of his heart in Ireland, Texas and Tennessee, Terry Clarke makes some great variations on the old lonesome folkabilly thing - a record that will tickle anyone who's ever got a thrill out of hearing 'Nebraska' or Shane MacGowan at his most displaced and sentimental.

'American Lipstick', for instance, is where Terry gives us the inverse of 'Fairytale Of New York', with the folks back home guessing wistfully on the fortunes of their errant kin. Hardly an original idea, but this latest instalment is handled in a lovely way, using slices of dialogue and packing masses of atmosphere into the spare production, while showcasing Clarke's keening tones with much style.

'Detroit To Dingle' and 'Dream Of Time' touch more on the Springsteen/Guthrie button, as Terry gets to hardnose the highway and finds the dark landscape echoing his characters' feelings. To his credit, Terry doesn't sound that much like a tourist, though the leavings and arrivings in every song become exhausting after a while.

So it's a smart record, then, and if he manages to find a few more themes in his songbag, Terry Clarke could be the folkie to watch this year. (7)

Stuart Bailie, New Musical Express 1991

TERRY CLARKE
The Shelly River Minidoka MICD 005

... one link between Peter Rowan and Terry Clarke is that they are both still great fans of music and accordingly keep their pores open to all sorts of influences. Both have come under the spell of Irish music and it is this spell that Clarke uses to craft a really excellent set. His own production deserves more than foil marks. He has his voice right up front, and stays entirely with acoustic music, mostly just guitar and mandolin. and it works. The songs chart Terry's musical influences in a very direct way... a musical travelogue, if you will. It is the sort of idea that, of course, can only be used once and it is the next, the third, album - as with all aspiring songwriters -that sorts out the men from the boys. Given the right breaks and the right exposure I can see many drooling over Terry Clarke and this collection of songs and, to he frank even without the songs, the voice and the production deserve a much wider interest.

Over the years both Rowan and Clarke have mixed in the very best company. and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see them get the attention they so richly deserve. As songwriters they both know the pitfalls. Writing directly from life's observations will get you only so far. It's when you have to pluck them out of the air that the fun really starts. Watch this space.

John Atkins Folk Roots 1991

TERRY CLARKE
'The Shelly River'
(Minidoka -/MILC OOS/MICD005 via AMT)


Last year's debut by Clarke, 'Call Up A Hurricane', did not represent accurately this Reading-based singer/songwriter's talents. Happily, this one does, and it is not overstating the case to suggest that it is by some margin the best album this year by a comparative unknown to cross my path. It is also impossible to resist the temptation to note that the muse which fuelled Van Morrison's work in the early 1970s seems to have found a new home, and many of the 15 songs averaging five minutes each on display here are of a similar musical and lyrical standard to albums like 'Moondance', 'St.Dominic's Preview' and so on. 'Detroit To Dingle' and 'American Lipstick' (both referring to Clarke's Irish heritage) are brilliant, and the title track, a view of Utopia through the eyes of a Celtic Townes Van Zandt, is stunning, as is the whole album. Although he is the antithesis of what major label A&R staff seem to be signing today, he is too good to miss, and dealers who prefer great songs to manufactured crap should stock this ASAP.

John Tobler 'For the Record' (W.H. Smith)

TERRY CLARKE - 'The Shelly River'
CD and cassette Minidoka Records. MICO or MILC 005.

A RARE COMMODITY-THAT'S TERRY CLARKE ...

Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Darden Smith appreciate a good thing when they see it.
When visiting the UK they ask for Terry Clarke to join them on their gigs.
It may be guitar. mandolin. or even bouzouki. You name it Terry will play it. An accomplished musician Terry is the possessor of a rare commodity - a fine songwriter with a good voice. His latest album confirms this very fact.

When glancing down the list of the 15 tracks one may be excused for thinking this is a very Irish product. Irish influenced yes. for he was born of an Irish father. However. his mother was English and he grew up in Reading spending his holidays in Ireland. In more recent times he has visited and acquired a great affection for the States.

With the feelings he has for these three countries add a touch of the romantic and we have on offer such songs as 'The Leaving Of Sligo', the story of the sadness felt by the loved one who is left behind when the family leave by ship that's 'bound for Detroit's dark doors, where the wind blows hard on Lake Michigan's shores'.

On 'The Sea Song' there are memories of the North Devon coast listening to the John Peel Show and looking at the 'midnight sea of blue tones of hammered steel, still can see the sunlight on the blackberries on the hill'.

One evening returning home from a gig Terry crossed over the A5. That road that leads to Holyhead and finally the ferry to Ireland triggered the writing of 'Raining All Over The World'. Surely one of the very few people who could successfully mention Kilbum and Harlesden in the same song with Baltimore and Mexico.

The jaunty 'The Edge Of Shamrock City' and 'Sligo Honeymoon 1946'. perhaps his parents? confirms his heritage. However, the first track 'Irish Rockabilly Blues' is to me neither Irish nor rockabilly but a very exotic cocktail that had me totally mesmerised under its spell - quite superb!

Here is an hour and a quarter of well crafted songs backed by a fine array of acoustic instruments with just a touch of 'sampled sounds' that helps to add a certain mustic quality. No matter what vour style of country 'The SheIIy River' is worth a moment of your time.

RICHARD KIRK, Country Music Round UP

Terry Clarke ‘The Shelly River’ Minidoka [1991]

Few of us grasp the opportunity to express a genuine thank you to our parents, before they are gone. It may be silently acknowledged and understood, while they are still with us, but actually expressing it openly and verbally makes a world of difference. Few of us posses a genuine in depth knowledge of our family history. The pattern that the current earthly generations and our ancestors, have woven into the fabric of this planet. In a nutshell, Clarke captures all of the foregoing in "The Shelly River." Joy, sorrow, parting, reunion, success, failure, procreation and passing - the stuff of memories. The stuff that raises our curiosity, that creates in us the urge to go, to travel, to discover, to find the reason why, and finally and hopefully, to understand it all. "The Shelly River" is a breathtaking album of snapshots of those events.

The Clarke's are of Irish lineage, a nation that has, for centuries, fed the melting pots of other continents. Terry's father, Joseph, sailed east and ended up walking the highways and byways of England before settling and raising his family in Royal Berkshire, while Joseph's older sister sailed west, during the 1920's, to the emerging New World and her adopted home in the city of Detroit. "The Leaving of Sligo" captures the latter, heartbreaking, event. Truth to tell, the fifteen songs that compose "The Shelly River" are an extension of that event and others that followed in it's wake. If "Sea Song" and "Sligo Honeymoon 1946" are subjectively English/Irish, then "American Lipstick" and "Detroit to Dingle" are thoroughly American/Irish, while "Dream of Time" stamps the seal of reunion on those ocean wide ties. If the latter song fails to rip your heartstrings apart, nothing ever will.

What really needs to be acknowledged about this recording is that, apart from Jackie Diamond's percussion, it is the total creation of Terry Clarke. The songwriting, all the instruments and the vocals, including the harmonies, on this masterwork are the work of this giant among men.

For Joseph and Florence Clarke, with much affection from their oldest boy, Terry. And for families everywhere

Arthur Wood Kerrville Kronikle 1991