In between leaving The Byrds in 1966 and releasing this first album credited solely to himself in ’71, Clark watched from outside as Gram Parsons breezed in and out of the band the former Byrd had co-founded, revolutionising their sound for 1968’s Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and generally finding himself credited with inventing country-rock. By the early 70s, Parsons had also launched and grounded his Flying Burrito Brothers within two short years, knelt at Keith Richards’ altar and was well on course to burn brightest but shortest.
Meanwhile, Clark’s more modest work with The Godsin Brothers and then Doug Dillard (totalling three LPs over as many years) saw him indulge in and refine his own country leanings: a sparser, less attention-grabbing take on country-rock that proved no less otherworldly than Gram’s “cosmic American music”. On White Light, Clark’s transfigured country music is stripped back to its deceptively barest bones; remove one component, the whole would collapse, such is the delicate beauty of the likes of For A Spanish Guitar, Because Of You and a take on Tears Of Rage that’s even more cracked than The Band’s acclaimed Music From Big Pink version.
Unashamedly out of step even at country-rock’s peak (and with the Burritos’ Chris Ethridge on bass), White Light argues that Clark was country music’s most quietly ardent celebrant. The album still shines in a Sundazed reissue series that includes 1968’s The Fantastic Expedition Dillard & Clark and ’73’s studio outtakes collection Roadmaster.
