Roy Clark is 81 years old today. A country music musician and performer, Clark is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre. Most of all, he is an entertainer, with an amiable personality and a telegenic presence. During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark is highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist and banjo player, and is also skilled in classical guitar and several other instruments. Although he has had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., Yesterday, When I Was Young and Thank God And Greyhound), his instrumental skill has had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. In 1983, Clark opened the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson, Missouri, becoming the first country music star to have his own venue there, and thus beginning a trend which led to Branson becoming a center of live music performance, as it is today. Many of the musicians who play in Branson first performed at the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre. Clark frequently played in Branson during the 1980s and 1990s. He has since sold the venue (now owned by the Hughes Brothers and renamed the Hughes American Family Theatre) and gone back to a fairly light touring schedule, which usually includes a performance with Ramona Jones and the Jones Family Band at their annual tribute to Clarks old Hee Haw co-star Grandpa Jones in Mountain View, Arkansas. Clark is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, since 1987. Here, Clark performs Charles Aznavour’s “Yesterday When I Was Young.”
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 03:31:20 +0000
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