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Odds are that even if you are not a fan of country music you have heard a song written by Guy Clark. "L.A. Freeway" was a nominal top 40 radio hit for Jerry Jeff Walker in summer 1973, and "Desperados Waiting For The Train" has carved itself into the American psyche. Clark himself is hardly a household name. Part of this is due to the fact that, for whatever reason, his recordings of his own songs generally aren’t quite as accessible as others’ interpretations. There are those who would dispute that statement, and fair enough, they might be right. Clark’s vocals are hardly off-putting, and they add another laconic layer to his already laid back delivery.

Raven Records, an Australian anthology label rapidly becoming indispensable for their releases spotlighting traditional country music, has released another winner here with the Clark collection Hindsight 21/20: The Anthology 1975-1995. The liner notes begin almost apologetically, indicating that a boxed set might have been more appropriate for Clark than a single disc, 21 track compilation. They needn’t have worried; Hindsight 21/20 is damn near perfect, with everything an aficionado would want in one place. And for those encountering Clark for the first time, you’re either going to get what’s going on here or you’re not. There’s no middle ground.

Guy Clark, as with the best of songwriters, has the uncanny ability to put the listener front and center into his song. That setting, more often than not, is a backdrop of loneliness, drunkenness, or road weariness; more often than not, it is some combination of the three. His work has also waxed nostalgic for the Western frontier (Desperados Waiting The Train, Texas 1947, The Last Gunfighter). Clark’s work is informed from the same well as Townes Van Zandt, although Clark has not drunk from it as frequently or deeply as his fellow Texan did. With Clark, there is at least some hope, however little there might be. He has one song, Dublin Blues, with the refrain "Well I wished I was in Austin/in the Chili ParlorBar/ Drinkin’ Mad Dog Margaritas/ and not carin’ where you are." There was a time in my life, long enough ago that it seems like a nightmare but recent enough that I can still taste the lime in the back of my throat, when I was living those lines. Clark’s work is full of moments like that, vignettes of love and loss and sadness informed by a faint world-weariness, but not without good times and raucous, if artificial, happiness as well.

Guy Clark is still at it, recording (and being recorded) and touring. It is not outside of the realm of possibility that Hindsight 21/20 will be the first of more anthologies. If anyone rates a collection of this nature, it’s Clark.