Life and Recordings
Clark lost his sight after an operation in the mid-1950s, and began playing and singing blues songs on street corners in Nashville. He also sold shopping bags, on 5th Avenue between Church and Union Streets, among other locations. Around 1964, Mike Weesner, a student at Peabody College, made a demo tape of Clark at Globe Studio. This came to the attention of Bob Ferguson and Chet Atkins of RCA Nashville. Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley's producer, was enlisted to produce the album. In December 1965, Weesner and Jarvis persuaded RCA to record Clark on the sidewalk, complete with prominently featured (but overdubbed) street noises and interactions with city dwellers. Clark performed both original songs and variations of familiar pop, country and blues tunes, including the Everly Brothers' hit "Bye Bye Love", Blind Boy Fuller's "Truckin' My Blues Away", and "Walk Right In" as popularised by the Rooftop Singers.
Despite the record selling fewer than 1,000 copies, Jarvis submitted it to the Recording Academy in the Folk category for 1966 record releases, which it went on to win ahead of other nominees including Ravi Shankar, Peter, Paul and Mary and Pete Seeger. However, the success had little impact on Clark, who continued to perform on the streets and was never recorded again. He died in 1969 in a house fire, after his kerosene heater exploded.
Read more about this topic: Cortelia Clark
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