Guy Clark's Triumphant Last Act

IF YOU WERE watching television after midnight on July 21, 1998, you may have witnessed a musical performance that belongs in the history books. David Letterman's introduction was a promise: "Here's where we're going to straighten your life out," he said. "Just listen to this song and everything'll be fine." The premise of the five minutes that followed was to promote the new album by Nanci Griffith, a collection of covers called Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), on which she sang songs by composers as antique as Stephen Foster and as modern as Richard Thompson. For her Late Night appearance, she chose to bring along Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle, Eric Taylor, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Guy Clark to sing Clark's 'Desperados Waiting for a Train'.