Houstonia’s The Must List tells you about something going on in Houston that you absolutely cannot miss.

In a 1983 episode of Austin City Limits, legendary singer-songwriter Guy Clark muses on the Los Angeles freeways, hoping to escape “without gettin’ killed or caught.” The song—appropriately titled “L.A. Freeway”—soulfully, wistfully hopes for a quieter, dirt-paved future. He wrote it regarding his move from LA to Nashville, but it’s certainly a sentiment Houstonians can relate to when 610, 59, and I-10 all turn to parking lots at rush hour.

It’s also, perhaps, one the musician himself may have even glimpsed in the sprawl’s nascent, pre–oil boom stages. Clark grew up in Rockport and moved to Houston after high school. He lived in the city for a decade and grew into one of the progenitors of the thriving local folk scene throughout the 1960s and part of the ’70s. And the folk scene in kind has been honoring his contributions since 2017 with A Night for Guy, an annual concert in his honor that will be taking place on May 15 at Rockefeller’s.

“Houston was a real part of Guy Clark’s story. And as a native Houstonian, I’ve been really proud of that,” says local musician and Bojangles Music School founder Shawn Parks, who cocreated Night for Guy. “So I figured, let’s try and do [a memorial show] here. Let’s kind of claim his death date, to some extent.”

Clark passed away in 2016 at age 74 from lymphoma. Parks and his fellow organizers, including his wife, Elizabeth Carroll Parks (a Houstonia contributor), and musician Matt Harlan wanted to set up a longer-lasting eulogy to the icon, one that paid homage to the legacy Clark left behind here in Houston, and the folk music community that grew up around it. The first Night for Guy, held at Montrose’s Anderson Fair, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the singer-songwriter’s death with an evening of artists performing his songs together. And some familiar faces showed up to pay their respects.

“Lyle Lovett—Guy Clark was one of his heroes and friends. He just showed up to play in that room that holds 100 people. Obviously, he has real ties to that room, too. It helped start his career,” Parks says. “So that just kind of put us on the map.”

Verlon Thompson, another one of Clark’s longtime collaborators, showed up the next year and has been a major presence at the event ever since. Shawn Camp, who produced Clark’s Grammy-winning album My Favorite Picture of You, joined the lineup in 2022, after Night for Guy took a few years’ hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s festivities serve double duty, celebrating Clark as well as the 50th anniversary of his debut album Old No. 1. Thompson and Camp will be returning to the stage, joined by Kam Franklin, Katie Rushing, Nick Gaitan, the Mighty Orq, and plenty of other folk singers whose musical lives have all been influenced by Clark. Harlan and Parks plan to pick up their guitars and contribute a few ditties, too.

“There was a time in Houston when there was a hotbed of traditional singer-songwriter activity in the ’70s… [Clark] was always known to be one of the people who was one of the best of the best,” Harlan says. “He was sort of a central figure. People wanted to know what he thought about their songs. They wanted to go hear what he was doing.”

Parks refers to Clark as someone who may not have enjoyed the mainstream recognition he deserved in his lifetime, particularly in Houston, but he says he remains a household name to musicians. A household name for the household names, in other words. He wrote songs covered by the Highwaymen and Townes Van Zandt, among others, and mentored Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. An event like Night for Guy serves as a reminder of just how much his talent has reverberated through multiple generations of musicians.

“[Clark is] able to weave emotions and imagery into his songs in a really authentic way. And for me, if I even just lift the lyrics off the paper and take them away from the music, I’m reading a beautiful story,” Rushing says. “I can see in my mind’s eye who he’s talking about, or where he is, or, you know, it’s in the details of the songs.”

She estimates it’s her third or fourth time performing at Night for Guy, and she notes that all of them are a little different. Last year, some performers canceled last minute due to the derecho. As Rushing was conducting sound checks while the winds barreled down Washington Avenue, she says crowd members came in alternating between looking perfectly normal and looking like they had just gone through a tornado.

But come they did. Night for Guy draws crowds traveling from across the country to commemorate Clark. Tickets usually go on sale about a month before the show, and Parks mentions that he gets emails two to three months in advance so fans can start making travel arrangements.

“When you get people, like, almost making pilgrimages to Houston for some of its musical history, that really makes you feel good. It’s a rare thing around here,” he says.