Joy Clark’s “Heart and Soul” Music | Acoustic Guitar Sessions

When she was a kid, singer-songwriter Joy Clark wanted a guitar, boots, and a horse. “Those desires were central to me,” Clark says. “I knew the guitar was gonna be key to me becoming the person that I am today.”

Clark was raised in Louisiana, and when she wasn’t singing in her family’s church, she was teaching herself how to play Boyz II Men melodies on her pawn shop guitar. As she grew up and felt less welcome in the church as a queer woman, Clark found solace in exploring the guitar, “it was my best friend, it still is.”

Spending time in New Orleans lead Clark to adopting an open-minded approach to songwriting. “I cut my teeth in New Orleans, playing with people like Cyril Neville, so I was playing a lot of funk music—and I came from the church. [My music] can be a little bluesy at some points, rootsy at others. I want to make a new genre called Heart and Soul music, that’s how I describe it.”

On a recent tour through California, Clark stopped by the AG offices, Gibson J-45 in tow, to share three songs from her debut album (on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe record label), Tell it to the Wind: “Shimmering,” “Guest,” and the title track, “Tell it to the Wind.”

Joey LustermanOpinionated creative slash beginning guitarist. Joey has worked in every department at Acoustic Guitar in the past 10+ years: front desk, ad sales, editorial, sound guy, camera man, booth babe, email coder, podcast editor, photographer, book designer…