SPOTLIGHT: Joy Clark ‘Lesson’ [VIDEO]
Meredith Lawrence
Posted On October 21, 2024
Joy Clark photo by Steve Rapport.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Joy Clark is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for Oct. 2024. Learn more about her and her new album, Tell it to the Wind (out Oct. 4 on Righteous Babe Records), in this interview, and look for more all month long.
Grandmothers carry and impart a certain kind of wisdom. It’s that wellspring of knowledge that Joy Clark draws from in “Lesson,” a track from her debut album, Tell it to the Wind. Clark lost the grandmother whose ‘lessons’ she treasured, shortly before she wrote the song, which became a celebration of her importance to Clark.
In her recent interview with Rachel Cholst for ND, Clark summed it up: “The song made me think about my ancestors,” she said. “It made me think about being a queer Black artist who’s making this kind of music, and how these roots go way back. I’m so proud of that song because we were able to take that really hard time in me, grieving for my grandmother, and think about all the great moments that we had and things that she taught me.”
In this video, Clark performs the song for ND readers in a stripped down acoustic version.
