Lawrence J. Clark

The Singing Poet Guy

A story worth sharing . . .

The son of a career Air Force seargent, Lawrence attended 14 schools across the US and overseas before his family settled in Southern Maine; by the age of sixteen was living on his own and had dropped out of high school . He spent the next few years in several occupations, spending time as a machine operator in a shoe factory, a cook in a lobster restaurant, and a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

At 17, Lawrence bought his first guitar for $99 and taught himself to play using chord books with songs by Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Harry Chapin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Miller, Jim Croce, and others. He quickly learned that it was easier (and much more satisfying) to write his own songs than to copy those of others; he wrote his first song ("If You Ever Get the Chance") in 1978. Within a year, he began performing his original material in small clubs and at private functions.

While working the midnight shift at the shoe factory, Lawrence managed to complete his high school diploma, then supported himself with what he describes as a variety of “exciting career opportunities,” working as a busboy, waiter, short-order cook, agricultural worker, freelance writer, and rental car agent in various states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Florida, and California. Throughout this time Lawrence continued honing his guitar and songwriting skills, practicing 6-8 hrs. a day and writing 3-5 songs a week, and performing mostly in small clubs, coffee houses, and private functions.

In 1981 Lawrence was awarded a scholarship to study music theory at a small college in southern Mississippi. In addition to taking courses in music and playing in local venues, he also washed dishes in the school cafeteria, waited tables at a barbecue restaurant, and cooked steaks and catfish at another restaurant called the Bum Steer Steakhouse. On weekends Lawrence would drive to New Orleans, playing for tips on Bourbon Street and hanging out in jazz and blues clubs in the French Quarter. He eventually was hired by a local radio station, ironically not as a music DJ, but as a journalist and news announcer.

Lawrence then followed the lead of his great-great Uncle Fred who came from New England to join the Texas Rangers (no, not the baseball team!). Instead of fighting Pancho Villa, though, Lawrence worked for a non-profit organization that cared for abandoned, abused, and orphaned children in the Mexican border town of Reynosa. He has made Texas his home, with the exception of a year in New Mexico, since 1987.

Moving to College Station to attend Texas A&M in 1990, Lawrence performed on songwriter nights in such places as the Third Floor Cantina, the Crooked Path Ale House, and the now extinct Front Porch Café, previously haunted by such notable Texas songwriters as Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen. He also played regular gigs at Dead Lazlo's Coffee House (yeah, the one with the coffin in the lounge) and the Scrub Pub, a bar/pool hall/laundromat, honing his stage skills while watching Aggies fold their laundry.

In 1998, Lawrence left a full-time teaching job to devote more time to his music and creative writing, paying his rent with part-time teaching and performance income.

In 1999, Lawrence moved to New Mexico, where he lived in a mountain cabin, taught writing and literature at New Mexico Tech and performed in several area music venues. After a year, though, Lawrence moved back to Texas, this time to the Austin area.

Less than a year after arriving in Austin, Lawrence cut his first CD, "Beautiful," and finding a good reception among Austin's songwriting community, immediately began work on his second project, "New Horizon," officially released in April 2004.

Lawrence recently moved his home base from Austin to Houston, where he is working on his next studio recording, "Nearly Naked," featuring "stripped down" versions of some earlier studio recordings as well as several never-released songs, as well as a fully produced CD of gospel tunes being produced by Chris Gage at Moonhouse Studios in Austin.

His new book of original poetry, "The Magic of Mechanics," was published earlier this year, and will soon be available at amazon.com, mytexasbooks.com, eighthdaybooks.com, as well as several independent bookstores.

With over 300 songs written already, and new ones coming along all the time, count on Lawrence having plenty of material for a long time to come!