Seventeen Year Old Gary Clark Jr. with Diunna Greenleaf (September 2001) — Image by kenne
We first saw Gary Clark Jr. live when he was 16 at the Cactus Moon in Humble, Texas. Our next opportunity was several months later in September of 2001 he played with Diunna Greenleaf at the Hermann Park Pavilion in Houston, Texas. This tall skinny kid from Austin, Texas, was a pleasure to listen to knowing we were witnessing the future of the blues. Over the years since then, we have followed him as his music has become a fusion of blues, rock, and soul music.
His latest album, This Land, includes a song written to his mother titled “Pearl Cadillac.” Last night we watched several times his latest video, which is “Pearl Cadillac. On his website, Gary writes about his first use of 35mm b&w film;
“We bought all of the film in the US to make this happen. Clément, the director, was really passionate about this story and so he did his thing in telling the story of Pearl Cadillac. I Just tried not to waste the film.”
“The music is Prince, the voice is Marvin Gaye, and the guitar is Albert King, and yet with all his influences, GCJ still has one of the most original sounds out there.” (Comment on YouTube.)
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