Bittersweet Blues

W.C. Clark, the “Godfather of Austin Blues,” travels from his Texas home to Cozy’s in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday. For singer-guitarist Clark, success has been bittersweet.

After years of toiling in Austin’s musical trenches, Clark stepped out on the national blues scene with his first Black Top Records CD, “Heart of Gold,” in 1994. He followed with a second, “Texas Soul,” in 1996. Rave reviews, television appearances and a W.C. Handy award came in rapid succession.

“My whole dream was to be able to travel and get my music heard,” Clark says. “Recently, I was telling my mother that all my musical dreams have come true.”

But in early 1997, Clark’s tour bus was involved in an accident while returning to Austin after a Midwest trip.

Clark’s fiancee, Brenda Jasek, and drummer Pete Alcoser were killed and Clark suffered serious injuries--both physical and emotional.

“It still affects me. I just remind myself it’s in the hands of God, and it still is,” Clark said. “I’ve tried to freeze it out, but I’m dealing with it.”

The singer-guitarist’s latest and third album, “Lover’s Plea,” was released earlier this year. It’s dedicated to the memory of Jasek and Alcoser. Clark is also featured on a “Best of Austin City Limits” PBS Special and CD released this year.

Born in Austin in 1939, Clark grew up in a musical family. He learned to sing in church, but, by the mid-’60s, he was a guitarist for soul singer Joe Tex’s band and traveling around the country. He returned to Austin in the early ‘70s, where he befriended a young guitarist named Stevie Ray Vaughan.

With Vaughan and singer Lou Ann Barton, he formed the Triple Threat Revue. It was during that time Clark wrote “Cold Shot,” which became a big hit for Vaughan. Clark left the Triple Threat Revue in the late ‘70s and formed his own band that continued to perform on the Austin circuit through the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Clark cites B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, George Benson, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and many others as his early musical influences.

“I listened to all kinds of music from jazz and gospel to country western back then,” Clark said. “I figure there’s a mixture of all that in what I’m doing now.”

Clark’s smooth singing style has more in common with Al Green and Sam Cooke than with Muddy Waters. “Lover’s Plea” covers a wide musical terrain, from the Memphis punches of the title track to the New York disco rhythms of “Are You Here, Are You There?”--a tune dedicated to Jasek. Clark’s sweet but sinewy vocals are complemented throughout by the Kamikaze Horns, led by Mark Kazanoff, who also produced the album.

The album cooks.

Check this Godfather out.

* W.C. Clark performs Wednesday night at Cozy’s, 14058 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 986-6000.

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Busting the Charts: Dave Robyn, who’s performing with his band this weekend at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, is like a lot of singer-songwriters in Los Angeles. The big difference is that Robyn has what most songwriters want: a hit record. His “This Ain’t Good” hit No. 24 on radio programming guru Bill Gavin’s Adult Contemporary Top 40, used by radio stations all across the U.S.

The song has been heard on the NBC soaper “Sunset Beach” and is currently getting about 1,200 spins a week on 52 radio stations nationwide.

“I’m on the charts with all these major-label artists,” Robyn said.

True enough; he’s keeping company with people such as Madonna and Aerosmith. Of the 40 artists represented in the top 40, only three are independent artists and Robyn is one of them.

It’s a major achievement.

Robyn said he started making progress when he forgot about following trends and opened his heart in his lyric-writing, choosing to discuss family problems, drug use, alienation, denial, heartache and other painful but common experiences.

“Now, I just want to rip my guts open every time I write a song,” he said.

Robyn, who cites Bruce Springsteen and Don Henley as major influences, is excited about his gut-wrenching prospects.

“I have a lot of demons to exorcise,” he said. Another song, “How Tall the Trees Have Grown,” deals with his troubles with his father; and another, “Uncle Joe,” is about a relative who recently died.

Audience members seem to relate to Robyn’s openness. Robyn said, during a break at a recent live show, an audience member came up to him, smiled knowingly, and said only six words: “Dude, I gotta call my Dad.”

* Dave Robyn Band performs Friday and Saturday night at the Sagebrush Cantina, 23527 Calabasas Road, Calabasas. (818) 222-6062.