The highest praise Guy Clark can hear about one of his songs is that his album-opening "Mud" could pass for the bluesy philosophizing of Townes Van Zandt. Clark additionally pays tribute to his late songwriting buddy by covering Van Zandt"s "Rex"s Blues," while the closing title track brings this song cycle full circle, thematically. Though not all the material has the depth of those three standouts, Clark"s weathered vocals benefit from the recording"s organic interplay of acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies, with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings providing guest support on "Arizona Star." "Magnolia Wind" finds plain-spoken poetry in the lilt of a country waltz, while "Bag of Bones" suggests that few writers are better than Clark at evoking folks on the verge of falling apart but somehow holding things together. While much of The Dark finds Clark slipping into some pretty familiar grooves, the collaboration with Terry Allen on "Queenie"s Song" refutes the adage that you can"t teach old dogs new tricks. --Don McLeese