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“Cross-eyed and Bow-legged”: Tom Clark, musician and archivist

Stepping into Tom Clark’s apartment is like entering into a museum of music memorabilia. An Exposicion de la Habana ’68 poster, printed in art nouveau style, hangs on the wall. A large bookshelf holds his impressive record (thousands) collection. Displayed on the bookshelf are four thumb-high Beatles figurines, a 1954 Roy Roger & Dale Evans Double R Bar Ranch lunchbox, Hank Williams record (Luke the Drifter), Pan Am toy airplane and a Remo drumhead autographed by the rock ‘n’ roll band, The Crickets. He owns over a hundred guitars (six on display in the living room, 30 in his bedroom closet and the rest in storage) and 67 vintage cowboy shirts.

  

That is a heap load of stuff. Clark (48), a musician with his own band Tom Clark and the High Action Boys, attributes this tendency to his father, who was an antique toy collector and salesman. To his friends, Tom is known as the Clark-ivist, like the archivistAn archivist is not a collector — someone who accumulates things. An archivist is someone who preserves, organizes and curates his collection. Continue reading