ANDERSON, Ind. — In December, drummer and songwriter Dane Clark was resting at his Anderson home recuperating from rotator cuff surgery.

Clark started thinking about Robert Johnson, the Mississippi guitarist of the 1920s who sold his soul to the devil to become perhaps America’s greatest blues singer.

When songwriters think of Johnson, things can turn a little depressing.

Clark wrote a bluesy song with the title “Robert Johnson” about hell hounds and the devil nipping at Clark’s heels. In the song, Clark sings “I’ll be writing these songs until I’m finally set free, until Robert Johnson comes looking for me.”

Later that day, Clark decided he should write a more upbeat song.

“I realized, wow, once I’d written it, if Robert Johnson had sold his soul to the devil, that’s really not probably a good idea. You probably don’t want Robert coming for ya. You might not be going to the place you expected to go for the afterlife,” said Clark who is known for his solo work and as being John Mellencamp’s drummer.

That wintry afternoon, his songwriting went the other way and he finished a song celebrating two music stars who had passed on, titled “Waylon & Johnny.”

Clark said, “Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash are two of my heroes from that genre of music.”

He added, “The first song was so dark and depressing I thought I don’t want to end the day like that. The other song is kind of the other side of the coin.”

“Robert Johnson” and “Waylon & Johnny” are two of 14 songs on Clark’s latest and fourth solo disc, “Postcards from a Hard Road.”

He’ll perform many of the disc’s songs, along with some Mellencamp gems, at his Dec. 7 concert at the Paramount Theatre, 1124 Meridian Plaza. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.

The concert will feature sets by Larry Crane, a former Mellencamp band member (1975-91), who has played with John Fogerty, Rosanne Cash, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine and Steve Earle. He and his band will be on the bill for what promises to be a great evening of new music and old favorites.

Also, Joel Levi, an Anderson University graduate, will sing and play guitar as an opener.

Clark plans to keep music on the stage throughout the evening, with few breaks, for a three-hour concert.



“Over It” and Wall Street

“Postcards” was recorded in Nashville, Tenn., Indianapolis and at his Anderson home which he calls Dungeon Studios. Clark, who is currently living in a former home used by a dentist, is seeking a house where he can set up a studio. He encouraged local residents, with feasible suggestions, to contact him through www.daneclark.com

He’s a 1977 graduate of Madison Heights High School and a 1982 grad of Anderson University.

Clark wrote all the songs on “Postcards,” which consists mostly of Americana songs, not unlike the sounds of John Hiatt, Levon Helm or Tom Petty (and yes, some Mellencamp sounds, too).

One song, however, is overtly political. “Over It” captures Clark’s and many other Americans’ initial fascination with the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011.

“I’m not that much of a political person. Sometimes I think you choose between the lesser of two evils and you go on about your way. But I was very taken by the Wall Street protest movement when it first began because I saw the spirit of the ‘60s there again,” he said.

“I believe there’s problems where we can ask a question and we demand to know what’s going on. Why are our small towns drying up? Why are businesses going to other countries? It’s OK to ask those questions and demand some answers from somebody ...

“That song, I guess it’s political but to me the last two sentences say everything, and the last two sentences are ‘We’re not talking about the right or the left, we just want to save whatever we’ve got left’.

“In other words, people are dying on the vine here, what’s going on fellas, is what I was really trying to say.

“I thought for a second there that that movement might have a prayer to make some good changes in this country

and I was obviously wrong because six months later it had degenerated into people doing foolish things in the name of something just to be idiots, I guess.”

There’s two versions of “Over It” on “Postcards.” One is an acoustic solo effort by Clark, who also plays guitar and piano; the other features members of 1960s San Francisco rock band Moby Grape. Clark is joined on vocals by founder Peter Lewis and Omar Spence, the son of Grape co-founder Skip Spence who died in 1999.

He met some of the band members a backstage at a “Summer of Love” reunion concert in 2007 with Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. In the future, Clark hopes to produce an album for Moby Grape which is still performing.

As a youth, one of Clark’s first album was “Moby Grape,” known as one of the early country-rock albums.

Clark added, “I remember I got it second-hand from my neighbor. He was leaving to join the service or something and he was getting rid of his rock records. It kind of changed my life, I felt in love with it ... I like everything about it.”