Follow Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt as they rise from obscurity to reverence: Guy, the Pancho to Van Zandt’s Lefty, struggling to establish himself as the Dylan Thomas of American music, while Susanna pens hit songs and paints album covers for top artists, and Townes spirals in self-destruction after writing some of Americana music’s most enduring and influential ballads.
Direction
Saviano spent 7 years; the archive footage feels impossibly private.
Writing
The title's from a Clark song—perfectly encapsulates the whole tragedy.
Director
Paul Whitfield
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title quotes Guy's 'Desperados Waiting for a Train'—a song about an older mentor figure, which Townes became to Guy despite being younger. The irony layers are brutal.
Susanna's paintings graced albums for Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and her own husband—yet she stopped painting entirely after Guy's death, as if her art died with him.
US
