SPOTLIGHT: With Debut ‘Tell It to the Wind,’ Joy Clark Is Finally Having a Moment

Contradictions form the foundation of Joy Clark’s musical life: was bandleader at the church her family ran while still a closeted teenager. She made her mark as a singer-songwriter in New Orleans, a town best known for funk and jazz. Now she’s crafting songs in a genre that provides too few opportunities for Black artists – particularly Black women. And while Clark has worked in music throughout her adult life, her new release on Righteous Babe Records, Tell It the Wind, is her long-awaited debut full-length.

“It was a rough going,” she said during a recent interview over the phone, “but I never realized that it was hard. I knew that I had different things to offer musically. So, I could play with Cyril Neville and sit in with the funk band. But I also had songs of my own, which I knew instinctively was not going to work for [those kinds of rooms].”

Things are changing, of course. Our interview fell on the eve of BlackAmericanaFest – a free, two-day festival in New Orleans that this year featured Leyla McCalla, Lili Lewis, Mia Borders, and many others. While most people associate the Crescent City with artists like Allen Toussaint, Clark argues that artists such as him are also singer-songwriters in the Americana tradition. While tourists might expect all New Orleans music to sound like Toussaint and other legends, there’s a diversity of sound in town.

“You have so many artists that are doing great work and putting out great music,” she says. “It’s an exciting time to be a singer songwriter Yes, it’s hard, but I think there’s so many communities that are here to cultivate that.”

Joy Clark’s ‘Tell It to the Wind’ releases Oct. 4 on Righteous Babe Records.

SYNERGY

Speaking of communities, Clark surrounded herself with one while making  Tell It to the Wind. She enlisted the musical support of fellow Black Opry member Roberta Lea, Nashville singer Kyshona, Lisa Coleman of the duo Wendy and Lisa, arranger Larissa Maestro, and many others. To boot, the album was produced by one of Clark’s childhood heroes, Christian Contemporary artist Margaret Becker. Clark enlisted artists from New Orleans and Nashville to fill out the sounds in her songs, giving them life. (“Next to Tracy Chapman, she was my biggest influence as a kid,” Clark notes.)

Working with Becker on this album led to a kind of synergy.

“We tend to go for the same type of chords,” Clark explains. “There were a lot of moments where I felt like I was listening to a new song by her, but we’re both writing it. It’s sort of like, Wait – where did this come from? Did it come from me? Did it come from you? [it was like] we merged.”

Clark’s family went to church three times a week, and Becker’s music was a constant companion. When she was enlisted to lead the praise band for her father’s congregation, Clark studied Beckett’s music for inspiration. But after she came out as gay, Clark was no longer allowed to lead the band.  

Clark remembers being removed from the band as being “a really hard thing to go through. Co-creating the album with Margaret, who is now a peer, whose music has helped me through so many things [was a dream].”

Clark feels that the process of making this album has confirmed her own dreams – and shored up her own self-reliance.

“That’s what the title of the album is [about]: it’s about dreams, and trusting yourself. The religion that I was brought up in, it teaches you to not trust yourself, to not believe in yourself.  This album counters all of that. I trusted myself to get me to this point and I’m going to keep trusting myself because I did a pretty damn good job.”

GUIDED INSPIRATION

Even the title track came to Clark by some kind of guided inspiration. On a recent tour, Clark was staying on a ranch. One morning, out for a walk, she realized she had with her all the things she wanted as a 10-year-old: a horse, a guitar, and a pair of boots. She decided to stroll over to the horses and pay them a visit and, on the way, the phrase “tell it to the wind” came to her.

“It stopped me in my tracks because it was very beautiful.,” she says, “I put it in my back pocket, not knowing what it was but that it sounded pretty and mysterious.” 

By the time Clark got to where the horses were kept, she had written the whole chorus in her mind. She sang to the animals. Later, she decided to Google the phrase and was surprised to discover, “it’s actually a Ghanaian proverb that says: If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind.

Clark had never heard the proverb before – at least not consciously. That the song came to her as a fully-formed chorus was also unusual for her. The song seems to have come from something or somewhere much larger than herself.

“… I call it my thesis song because I feel like it’s how life has unfolded for me,” she says. “I’ve had to navigate life being closeted, playing in church. I knew I wanted to be a musician playing [on bigger] stages, but I always knew that there would be some friction with the church. How would I break out of this box and have it be genuine?” 

TRUE TO HER ROOTS

“Tell It to the Wind”  has a lilting delicacy that belies its deep, pulsing rhythm. True to her roots, Clark calls to the conventions of liturgical music to set the stage for the personal expression in her lyrics. After all, it necessarily demands the creation of spaciousness and energy – two things Clark has come to value across her songwriting.

“In church,” she explains, “you have to play under someone who is speaking. With [writing]lyrics, it’s way more [about] digging in to see what word works – Does it flow? Is this going to be a word that you forget or can it roll off your tongue?” 

With “Shine,” another of the album’s beacons, finds Clark’s confident voice anchoring an exuberant brass arrangement as she exhorts her listeners to be exactly who they wish to be in their innermost hearts. By contrast, the bluesy “Lesson” is constructed around a single chord. It’s a standout for Clark because she wrote it to a celebrate her grandmother, who passed away right before the song was written.

“The song made me think about my ancestors,” she says. “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.” 

While Clark has been a touring musician for years, finally recording a full-length album was clearly worth the wait – for her and her fans. 

“I feel like I’m in my seat,” she says. “I  feel really good about what’s happening. I also feel like I’m being lifted up by everybody that played on this album. That’s what I’m telling to the wind.”