Key to the Highway: Joy Clark

Joy Clark photo by Steve Rapport

Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series

Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Joy Clark.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Joy Clark: My morning go-to drink is a hot chai with oat milk. Always.

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

JC: The most interesting place I stayed in was a beautiful historic home in West Virginia near Purple Fiddle. It had numerous rooms and my room had a single bed, a lamp and really big windows. The bathroom had a clawfoot tub, the floors were wooden and the ceilings were really high. I felt like I was hidden away in a magical world that was only meant for me to experience.

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

JC: If any cd is stuck in the cd player on tour I hope it’s Chaka Khan’s album Whatcha Gonna Do For Me. That groove is just so deep and it always puts me in such a great mood. “Whatcha Gonna Do For Me,” and “Melody Still Lingers On (Night in Tunisia)” have such deep grooves that put me in a great mental space for the road.

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

JC: Footwear is so important on tour, and I must have my comfy yellow insulated Crocs with me. They make me feel relaxed and at home when I get to my hotel room or on the tour bus.

AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?

JC: I love food, and coming from New Orleans, I am accustomed to flavorful food. When I go on the road that kind of thing is really hard to find so I stick with food that you can’t really mess up: fruit, salmon, french fries and salad are my safe choices. Sometimes you can’t fully avoid fast food. I think I’ve resigned to the fact that I will not have everything I want but I do know how to find food that will do for that moment.

AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?

JC: I wish I could pause my life in Rockland, Maine. I’m always charmed by a city on the water with a little town center where you can get everything you need on one main street. I’ve got an affinity for towns like that. It was just beautiful and very charming and I look forward to returning.

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

JC: One of the best pieces of advice I got from a road vet was to build in time to just have fun. Enjoy the place that you’re in because you may not ever be there again.

Find more information about her new album, and tour dates for Joy Clark, including an upcoming tour with Ani DiFranco, here: https://joyclarkmusic.com

See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Todd Park Mohr Jim Lauderdale Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )