AURAL ROBERT

Another "outlaw" country artist

- ROBERT BAIRD

Recently, a letter to the editor from Len Eggert arrived in Stereophile's digital mailbox that closed with a question: "How about coverage of other notable 'outlaw' singer-songwriters who shunned Nashville and put Austin on the musical map: Guy Clark? Kris Kristofferson? Jerry Jeff Walker? Waylon Jennings? Billie Joe Shaver? David Allan Coe? Are you listening, Robert Baird?"

Timely if nothing else, that email came just after I had serendipitously acquired a new to-my-collection, first-pressing LP copy of the first Guy Clark album, Old No. 1. Killing time before a doctor's appointment near Washington Square Park in Manhattan, I wandered into Generation Records. As loud punk rock blared across the store-which was once filled with bootleg CDs but is now almost entirely new and used vinyl-I happened to glance up.

Just below the ceiling, well out of reach of shoplifters, was a copy of Guy Clark's Old No. 1.

When I asked the burly, tattooed clerk, who looked every bit a metalhead, to get it down, he smiled and, much to my surprise, launched into a lengthy sermon extolling the outlaws of country music. Jennings, Walker, Shaver, and Clark all rolled off his tongue as he marveled out loud about their memorable songwriting and over how expensive the OG pressings of their albums have become. Original vinyl pressings of the best albums by these artists in VG+ shape often start at $50. At higher grades, that figure can easily exceed $100. As I slid the record in question out of its custom inner sleeve and turned it over in my hands, the clerk, now in full pontification mode, drew other customers into the discussion.