# PROFILE GARY CLARK JR.

Since recording his major label debut Black And Blu in 2012, 36 year-old Texan Gary Clark Jr. has become the poster boy of modern blues. He’s earned his stripes through the same Austin scene that produced legends such as Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan and jammed with his biggest heroes – in front of Barack Obama – daring to take the genre to new chart-bothering heights.

2015’s The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim saw Gary continuing to stray beyond the familiar 12-bar turnarounds, incorporating all the right elements of funk, soul and hip-hop into the mix. It’s old-school values delivered in contemporary style, with taste at the very heart of the equation.

Fast forward to 2020, and Gary’s most recent offering This Land has earned him a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, with its title track also receiving the coveted awards for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. It’s perhaps fitting that a guitarist who shies away from notions of being a modern-day blues saviour should find acclaim for rock.

“I don’t think the blues is in need of anything,” Gary related to TG in 2015. “It can stand on its own, as the root and foundation of music. You can’t have any vegetation without roots. There are so many ways to express yourself and so many tools to help you do it. For me to be a true artist, I need to use all the brushes and all the colours and see what I can do.”

Guitar-wise, though he branches out at times, Gibson and Epiphone are mainstays, with Casinos and SGS (humbucker and P-90 variants) taking up most of the space on Gary’s stand. For amps, he turns to Fender, opting for Vibro-king and Princeton models. For the icing on the sonic cake, fuzz distortion and a wah wah are key to Gary’s sound.

CLARKE JR. STRAYS BEYOND FAMILIAR 12-BAR TURNAROUNDS INTO FUNK, SOUL AND HIP-HOP