Gary Clark Jr.

A Black guitar hero for the 21st century, Gary Clark Jr. combines the sear and snarl of his Texas-blues roots with increasingly pertinent songwriting. Born in Austin in 1984, Clark forged his slashing, muscular style at the storied club Antone's, until a bust-out appearance at Eric Clapton's 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival earned him a Warner Bros. contract. Clark's first two studio albums, 2012’s Blak and Blu and 2015’s The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, delivered nasty and noisy improvisations in songwriting bottles both old and—in the vexed neo-R&B grooves of “Numb and “Grinder”—new. Between studio releases, Clark let off steam on Gary Clark Jr. Live and Live North America 2016, where he displayed his blues bona fides to full effect and brought his own work into sharp focus alongside powerfully intimate covers of Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Albert Collins, and Jimi Hendrix. The anger churning beneath Clark's best work exploded into the open in the title track of 2019's This Land. Responding to racist neighbors' demand that he "go back where you came from," Clark growls, "I'm America's son. This is where I come from." At its splenetic, overdriven best, This Land is a complex studio creation that anticipates 2020's urgent street demonstrations and responds with historical resonance and gritty analogue pride.