Lindsay Clark brings her wondrous folk songs to Suttle Lodge

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, December 18, 2024

It has been two and a half years since Lindsay Clark released her 2022 album “Carpe Noctem,” an 11-track collection of moonlit folk songs built around fingerpicked acoustic guitar and gentle, gorgeous melodies.

Fans of left-of-center folk giants like Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Joan Shelley and José González should go check it out today at lindsayclark.bandcamp.com.

Clark, of course, is thinking about what she’s going to do next, although she’s not certain what that will look like. She wants to make another album — she plans to open a fundraiser for it early next year — but she’s still working on a lot of the details.

“Those songs (from ‘Carpe Noctem’) still feel fresh to me, so that’s good. I’ve been continuing to play them while I’m figuring out some new songs and new material,” she said. “It took me a while to figure out my next direction.”

Such as the ebb and flow of a creative pursuit, wherein the art — in this case, songs — might materialize relatively quickly, or it may prove elusive to the artist for months or even years. That dynamic is part of the reason Clark started Spirit Song, a platform she uses to “provide an array of resources to help tap into our naturally deep wells of creativity, and to give emotional support for the unique challenges that we as artists and humans face,” according to her website.

Through Spirit Song, Clark offers creativity coaching, somatic healing, astrological insights, workshops on songwriting and more to artists, aspiring artists — and even people who don’t aspire to make art but are looking for something in their lives.

“I’ve often just felt so lost in my own creative journey, and I wish that I had something like that (because) being creative is such an important thing in my life, and I really want people to hold on to that, you know? Even for people who maybe don’t feel like they’re creative or whatever,” she said.

“My viewpoint is that it’s really something that anybody can explore and it has such big implications for us as individuals and as a human species,” she continued. “I think it’s incredibly important to nurture that in people.”

Clark sees Spirit Song as a natural outgrowth of her music, and she hopes to do more with it in 2025. First, though, she has a new album to finalize: Finishing songs, lining up collaborators, figuring out how to bring it to life and put it out into the world.

“I’ve been experimenting on the guitar and exploring other subjects, and some different song structures and chords. So maybe, in my mind, it’s a little weirder,” she said. “A little less traditional songwriting, but still folk. And still me.”

If You Go

Who: Lindsay Clark

When: 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 19

Cost: $10

Where: The Suttle Lodge, 13300 U.S. 20, Sisters

Contact: thesuttlelodge.com