AUSTIN -- A Kickstarter campaign for legendary Texas troubadour Guy Clark has more than doubled its $75,000 goal with two weeks of fundraising to go.
Tamara Saviano, who is currently writing a biography about the West Texas-born songwriter, started the campaign on April 27 after she and Clark's manager decided last year that the legendary singer's story needed to be told. Saviano worked as Clark's publicist and has been working with him on his biography for about seven years, she writes in the Kickstarter campaign's description.
"Guy said if anyone was going to produce a film about him, it should be me because we had spent all these years together on the book and that I know more than anyone else," Saviano writes. "And Guy trusts me. He knows I'll do right by him even when telling parts of the story that are painful because I love and respect Guy (and I think everyone who knows him does, too). Because Guy's health is precarious, we had to start filming right away."
Saviano obtained exclusive rights to Clark's story and said the documentary, dubbed "Without Getting Killed or Caught" after Clark's "LA Freeway," will follow Clark, now 73, as he moves from Texas to Los Angeles to Nashville.
Clark was a major influence in establishing the outlaw country and progressive country genres and has been a mentor to countless household names in country music, such as Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, Jimmy Buffett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle and more. Many of the same musicians, as well as countless others, have charted with Clark's songs.
Saviano said $75,000 will help cover the music licensing costs and that she and her husband, Paul Whitfield, a video engineer for Bruce Springsteen, will figure out "creative ways" to pay the other bills. Looks like they won't have to -- they met their goal in just three days.
The Kickstarter campaign runs through May 20. As of Wednesday, more than 1,370 people donated to the effort.
