'Old Friends' celebrate Guy Clark at the Ryman

Verlon Thompson stepped to center stage at the Ryman Auditorium Tuesday night, surveyed the packed pews before him, and deadpanned, “Does anybody have a Guy Clark story they’d like to tell?”

The evening was a celebration Clark’s life: the legendary Texas-born and Nashville-based singer-songwriter died in May at the age of 74.  More than two dozen of Clark’s friends and collaborators sang his songs at the Ryman on Tuesday; if they had all started telling stories about Clark, the show would have stretched until dawn.

There was a notice posted backstage that read, “Guy’s songs are more interesting than your stories,” a reminder to the night’s performers to keep the music flowing. The concert moved along at a steady pace, but there isn't a sign in the world that could keep a room full of singer-songwriters from telling stories.

"Guy Clark was my friend before I ever met him," Lyle Lovett said as he shared how Clark championed his music when he was an unknown artist in the mid-1980s. Bobby Bare remembered how his cover of Clark's "New Cut Road" resulted in ownership of a new Chevy Tahoe, and Jerry Jeff Walker told the crowd how Clark once showed him a song called "Pack Up All Your Dishes," which became the classic ballad "L.A. Freeway."

For 150 minutes, the show's stellar roster of artists—which featured Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Camp, Sam Bush, Terry Allen  and Angaleena Presley and many more, in addition to several surprise guests including Robert Earl Keen and Chris and Morgane Stapleton, among others—delivered one heartfelt performance after another.

The sold-out crowd sang along with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings as they performed "Dublin Blues," Rodney Crowell (the concert's musical director) and Vince Gill (the emcee) delivered a moving rendition of "Stuff That Works," and Jack Ingram and Steve Earle's "Desperados Waiting for a Train," which featured Mickey Raphael playing harmonica, felt downright cathartic.

At the end of the night, all of the artists crowded back onto the Ryman stage for two last numbers: a freewheeling "Texas Cookin'" followed by "Old Friends." The entire room joined in to sing the final song's chorus: "Old friends, they shine like diamonds / Old friends, you can always call / Old friends, Lord, you can't buy 'em / You know it's old friends after all."