The South Coast Of Texas

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The back cover of the <i>South Coast of Texas</i> album shows a picture of shrimp boats bobbing in the Texas gulf on a dull winter’s overcast day. The photo is a perfect companion to Clark’s album: unpretentious, unexpected, yet utterly of Texas. Produced by Rodney Crowell, <i>The South Coast of Texas</i> is an understated affair despite the electric instrumentation. If <i>Old No. 1</i> and <i>Texas Cookin’</i> are the sounds of Austin honky-tonks and late-night Nashville picking sessions, then the music here is what you’d hear coming from a radio in the captain’s quarters on the kind of grey day pictured on the back cover. “Who Do You Think You Are” adopts J.J. Cale’s muted shuffle with a hint of menace, while “Heartbroke” is skeletal rockabilly that later gained fame from cover versions by George Strait and Ricky Skaggs. The title song could have been an image of Corpus Christi vacations, but Clark brings us the details from a January wharf: “Salty and stern as a knife.” Choose a raw weather day, head for the saltwater, and make sure to pack a copy of <i>The South Coast of Texas</i> with your thermos of black coffee.

via Apple Music