There are several young musicians playing blues bars these days, but one particular young man from Austin deserves to be noticed.  Gary Clark Jr.`s name is quickly becoming widely known in Texas.  Gary has played with or opened for several established blues names such as Bobby Blue Bland, Gatemouth Brown, Lazy Lester and James Cotton.  Gary was born in, and still lives, in Austin.  Because of Gary`s extraordinary talent, the mayor of Austin declared May 3rd, 2001 as Gary Clark, Jr. Day and he was recently asked to play the Austin City Limits Festival at Zilker Park.

He recently showed up at J&J Blues Bar to participate in the Albert King Tribute.  The welcome he received is testimony to his extraordinary talent.  Gary humbly agreed to an impromptu interview during a break in the show.

Tell me about you.  Are you from a musical family?

No.  Not in my immediate family.  I just picked up a guitar and watched people on TV.    I always wanted to play.  That`s how I started out.

Do you have an inspiration, another musician`s influence?

Albert Collins, Albert King, of course Freddie King, Hound Dog Taylor, guys like that. Jimi Hendrix, of course.  Stevie Ray.

May I ask how old you are?

18

A lot of the local guys don`t usually have a lot of favoritism toward the younger musicians.

I know.

But what I have noticed is that a lot of the older guys have had a lot to say about your talent.  Wes Race is the one who told me about you.  Paul Byrd sitting at the table with me had his attention on you.

That`s cool.  I was really intimidated by him.  He was up there rippin` it.  Oh yeah.  I was really watching him play as well.

You say you`re self taught.  Do you have any training?  How did you get started, how did you learn?

Yeah.  I taught myself.  I listened to CD`s all day of the guys I look up to and learned what they did.

So, how did you get your first guitar?

I begged my parents for two years to get me a guitar for Christmas.  I got one about six years ago on Christmas Day.

What kind of guitar did you get?

It`s an Ibanez.  It was a good starting guitar.  I still have it.

No lessons?

No.  I picked up a book after that Christmas break.  I went to the library at my school and checked out a book and learned a couple of chords.