Contained in the Annual Night time for Man Honoring Musician Man Clark

Houstonia’s The Should Checklist tells you about one thing happening in Houston that you simply completely can’t miss.

In a 1983 episode of Austin Metropolis Limits, legendary singer-songwriter Man Clark muses on the Los Angeles freeways, hoping to flee “with out gettin’ killed or caught.” The music—appropriately titled “L.A. Freeway”—soulfully, wistfully hopes for a quieter, dirt-paved future. He wrote it relating to his transfer from LA to Nashville, but it surely’s definitely a sentiment Houstonians can relate to when 610, 59, and I-10 all flip to parking tons at rush hour.

It’s additionally, maybe, one the musician himself could have even glimpsed within the sprawl’s nascent, pre–oil increase phases. Clark grew up in Rockport and moved to Houston after highschool. He lived within the metropolis for a decade and grew into one of many progenitors of the thriving native people scene all through the Sixties and a part of the ’70s. And the folks scene in sort has been honoring his contributions since 2017 with A Night time for Man, an annual live performance in his honor that will likely be happening on Could 15 at Rockefeller’s.

“Houston was an actual a part of Man Clark’s story. And as a local Houstonian, I’ve been actually happy with that,” says native musician and Bojangles Music Faculty founder Shawn Parks, who cocreated Night time for Man. “So I figured, let’s try to do [a memorial show] right here. Let’s type of declare his demise date, to some extent.”

Clark handed away in 2016 at age 74 from lymphoma. Parks and his fellow organizers, together with his spouse, Elizabeth Carroll Parks (a Houstonia contributor), and musician Matt Harlan wished to arrange a longer-lasting eulogy to the icon, one which paid homage to the legacy Clark left behind right here in Houston, and the folks music neighborhood that grew up round it. The primary Night time for Man, held at Montrose’s Anderson Honest, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the singer-songwriter’s demise with a night of artists performing his songs collectively. And a few acquainted faces confirmed as much as pay their respects.

“Lyle Lovett—Man Clark was one among his heroes and associates. He simply confirmed as much as play in that room that holds 100 individuals. Clearly, he has actual ties to that room, too. It helped begin his profession,” Parks says. “In order that simply type of put us on the map.”

Verlon Thompson, one other one among Clark’s longtime collaborators, confirmed up the following 12 months and has been a serious presence on the occasion ever since. Shawn Camp, who produced Clark’s Grammy-winning album My Favourite Image of You, joined the lineup in 2022, after Night time for Man took just a few years’ hiatus as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

This 12 months’s festivities serve double responsibility, celebrating Clark in addition to the fiftieth anniversary of his debut album Outdated No. 1. Thompson and Camp will likely be returning to the stage, joined by Kam Franklin, Katie Speeding, Nick Gaitan, the Mighty Orq, and loads of different people singers whose musical lives have all been influenced by Clark. Harlan and Parks plan to choose up their guitars and contribute just a few ditties, too.

“There was a time in Houston when there was a hotbed of conventional singer-songwriter exercise within the ’70s… [Clark] was all the time identified to be one of many individuals who was among the finest of the very best,” Harlan says. “He was form of a central determine. Individuals wished to know what he considered their songs. They wished to go hear what he was doing.”

Parks refers to Clark as somebody who could not have loved the mainstream recognition he deserved in his lifetime, notably in Houston, however he says he stays a family title to musicians. A family title for the family names, in different phrases. He wrote songs coated by the Highwaymen and Townes Van Zandt, amongst others, and mentored Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. An occasion like Night time for Man serves as a reminder of simply how a lot his expertise has reverberated by means of a number of generations of musicians.

“[Clark is] in a position to weave feelings and imagery into his songs in a very genuine means. And for me, if I even simply elevate the lyrics off the paper and take them away from the music, I’m studying a lovely story,” Speeding says. “I can see in my thoughts’s eye who he’s speaking about, or the place he’s, or, you already know, it’s within the particulars of the songs.”

She estimates it’s her third or fourth time acting at Night time for Man, and he or she notes that each one of them are slightly totally different. Final 12 months, some performers canceled final minute as a result of derecho. As Speeding was conducting sound checks whereas the winds barreled down Washington Avenue, she says crowd members got here in alternating between wanting completely regular and searching like that they had simply gone by means of a twister.

However come they did. Night time for Man attracts crowds touring from throughout the nation to commemorate Clark. Tickets often go on sale a couple of month earlier than the present, and Parks mentions that he will get emails two to a few months prematurely so followers can begin making journey preparations.

“Whenever you get individuals, like, nearly making pilgrimages to Houston for a few of its musical historical past, that basically makes you’re feeling good. It’s a uncommon factor round right here,” he says.