‘Bright Light’ Gary Clark Jr. mesmerizes, invites Red Butte audience to ‘Come Together’



By Jennifer J. Johnson | [email protected] 

It was foreshadowing—all the right kind of foreshadowing.

The stage lights up—in stages.

Pulsing lights and spectacular blue light bathe the stage.

It is the most dramatic opening of the Red Butte season, with perhaps the most electric message, and starts, appropriately large with “Bright Lights” (2012), the title song of the artist’s first and well-received EP.

It is the Red Butte debut of blues-rock-soul fusion artist Gary Clark Jr., himself an enduring, incredibly bright light on the music scene whose current work is nothing less than a fiery assertion of human rights.

During his night, the versatile Clark embraced mesmerizing guitar solos, an exploration of his vocal range—including falsetto, dabbled in genres ranging from his home-base R&B to reggae to gospel to metal to tribal to surf rock and channeled mentors such as Jimi Hendrix, Al Green, Prince, George Benson, Peter Frampton, and even The Beatles.

It is another epically long night made impossibly too short and sweet with an artist who continues to emerge. While other artists such as Steve Miller Band and Lyle Lovett posted full slates with lots of songs, Clark sealed his unique position at Red Butte, delivering enduring musical jams which kept the imagination firing in equal step with his provocative lyrical messaging.

‘Righteous jam offering to the gods’

Clark’s “Our Love” (2015) is a solid song, fueled by great lyrics and a gospel-R&B-rock-turned doo-wop musicality.

When performed at Red Butte? It became nothing less than a righteous jam offering to the gods. Spooky synth prayers and ecstatic guitar were paired with timed pink-purple-white lights and powerfully-belted lyrics.

The ultra-new “When I’m Gone” (2019) showcased Clark’s guitar skills. With Clark, guitar is not just accompaniment—it is punctuation.

The new material is strong. “I Got My Eyes on You” (2019) showcases Clark’s vocal versatility and overall musical versatility.

The crowd literally goes crazy with “When My Train Pulls In” (2012)—a musical sermon with grand-scale changes and guitar virtuosity.

‘This Land’: fiery message and musicality

Message takes the stage when Clark performs “This Land” (2019).

The song has been called “fiery” and “ferocious.”

Clark turns America’s best-known folk song—Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” (1940)—on its well-intentioned head.

The concept is true to Guthrie’s musical concept: Guthrie wrote his song in response to what he viewed as an overly protestant, dreary American theme song—“God Bless America.”

In today’s world, still rife with racism and human-rights violations, Clark is using his music to influence.

The Red Butte crowd is solidly on board, when the concert hits its high point, with Clark’s ebullient “This land is mine!”

Universal musicality: the invitation to ‘Come Together’

To send the message that he is but a soldier, a messenger, a contributor in not just musicality, but the greater message of a better America, a better world based on human rights, Clark elects to end on what most—at least in the Western world—would agree is music’s ultimate common ground—a cover of The Beatles’ “Come Together.”