Released to coincide with the Texan troubadour’s 70th birthday, this is a wonderful and fitting tribute to a vastly underrated and classic songwriters’ songwriter. Indeed the stellar cast of performers who have turned out to honour the man attest to Clark’s enduring influence. The highlights and performers on this 2-disc set are too many to list here, but with names such as Emmylou, Willie, Kristofferson, Prine and Earle to name but a few, well… you get the general idea. Ultimately what makes this such a cracking set is the unmistakable quality of the material and that is surely as fitting a tribute that one could ever hope for to a man whose depth of humanity will burn long and true. In a word, essential.

Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda