“Tracy’s music helped me see myself and what was possible,” says Clark, who was the guitarist in Allison Russell’s band, the Rainbow Coalition, and lives outside New Orleans on the Westbank in Harvey. “Her debut album was the first secular album that I owned and played aloud in my very devout Christian childhood home. I identified with the entire album and really internalized it politically and musically. It really transformed me.”

Clark, the youngest of five children in a tight-knit religious family, says her own debut album is a declaration of her independence and a love letter to the traditions that shaped her.

Tell it to the Wind, she says, marks her arrival on the national stage as a proud, queer, Black woman blending the social consciousness of folk, the rhythms of southeast Louisiana and the soul-centered music she grew up with.

“The album is really about hopes, dreams and trusting my intuition,” Clark tells me. “I’ve had to learn to trust myself and my path. In my earlier years, I really knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to perform and be on stage, but I had no idea how that would happen. I didn’t have role models. I was pretty steeped in the walls of church and a different type of path. I quietly fought for the life and the art that I discovered I wanted to make. This album is a snapshot of that process.”

Clark teamed with a musical hero — four-times Grammy-nominated Margaret Becker — to make Tell it to the Wind. Clark learned to play and sing Becker’s music in church, and Becker co-wrote six of the album’s nine tracks.

They wrote the album’s two-track single, “Lesson” and B-side “Guest,” and Becker plays keyboards, electric guitar and synthesizer and provides backup vocals. Lisa Coleman, who played with Prince and the Revolution and Wendy & Lisa, adds keyboards on “Guest.”

“Lesson” is “an unapologetic demand that we all take our rightful place in the struggle for freedom and reminds listeners of rock ‘n’ roll’s Black, queer and Southern roots,” Clark explains.

All the album’s songs are personal, but the title track stands out as her “thesis song,” Clark says. “It describes my life as a kid with so many unspoken dreams and longing for more. It’s hopeful, yet contains a struggle to hold on to hope.”

The album is musically and vocally beautiful, but I ask Clark whether anything about the finished product surprised her or made her realize when she first heard the entire album played through.

“The one thing that surprised me about the finished product is that it really did come together to make a cohesive work,” she responds. “There were times during the process where I felt the album was sort of a mixed bag. It is a very accurate picture of the depth of my own artistry.”

In late November, Clark performed at the legendary New Orleans club Tipitina’s in “A Tribute to the Queen Irma Thomas.” Thomas, dubbed “the Soul Queen of New Orleans,” also performed, as well as Ani DiFranco, Galactic, Marcia Ball and Susan Cowsill.

I ask Clark how she views her electric and acoustic guitar playing and its uniqueness.

“My guitar playing goes from orchestral to funky and bluesy,” she answers. “I can seamlessly go from one to the other depending on what tone I need. My approach is pretty lyrical. I fingerpick a lot, and that’s how I experiment with melody. That approach allows me to control my attack and use different colors. I use a pick, but I tuck it frequently in favor of fingerpicking melodies. I get more choices and interesting mixes that way.”

I ask her to also describe her voice and name the best singers she has heard.

“My voice is earthy and sensitive at time,” she says. “It is very intimate. My voice is my own, and I’ve really learned to embrace what it is and what it isn’t. My singing is really intertwined with my playing, and I make sure to lean into that. Sometimes, I don’t know which one comes first. They tend to happen at the same time. Some of my favorite singers are Lizz Wright and Helen Baylor.”

Another excellent singer, Allison Russell, who was in Po’ Girl and Birds of Chicago and released two brilliant solo albums in 2021 and 2023, gave a talk in 2021 that Clark attended at the annual Americanafest in Nashville.

“I met her after she got off stage,” Clark recalls. “She was so kind and gracious and seemed to already know who I was. My first show in her band was in 2022 at the Ryman opening for Yola. Being on that stage was such a turning point for me, because it made me realize how primed I was for the moment. It was seamless.  I felt so lucky to be on stage with her and the entire Rainbow Coalition. I was blessed to play on four tracks on The Returner, including the Grammy-winning ‘Eve Was Black.’ It is always an honor to play shows with Allison.”

Playing in Russell’s band on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Clark met Brandi Carlile.

“Brandi was the guest host, and, after we did the taping, I introduced myself, and she was the kindest person,” Clark recalls. “She asked me about my music and was instantly supportive.”

Clark performed her song “Gumbo Christmas” two years ago with Ani DiFranco at an event at the Orpheum in New Orleans and will tour with her for 12 shows in January and February in Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington.

“She really loved the song, and, soon after, I was at her house singing a few songs from my debut album Tell it to the Wind,” Clark says. “I remember getting a laugh from her after I sang the line ‘I’m takin’ my lamp, I’m takin’ my bike, I’m takin’ my plant, gonna raise it right.’ Soon after, I signed on with her label Righteous Babe. It feels so great to be seen by such a prolific artist of her caliber.”

There are so many prolific artists who have graced listeners’ ears for centuries, but which one delivered the best album that Clark ever heard?

“I will give you an answer here, and then I may give you another on a different day, ha-ha,” Clark responds. “But, since I mentioned Tracy’s debut album, I think it’s the best because of the enormous impact it had on me and other singer-songwriters.”

What concert was the best one Clark ever attended?

“I saw Aaron Lee Tasjan for the first time at 30A (Songwriters Festival in Walton County, Florida) earlier this year, and his concert just made me so happy and inspired. It was so dynamic. I absolutely loved the attention to sound design. I loved his vocal treatments and the spot-on tone of his guitar and stellar band. They just nailed it, and he was having the best time. What a show.”

What concert most influenced Clark’s musicianship?

“I remember watching Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal and being so deeply moved,” she says. “Their styles complimented each other so well. The music just felt great and organic. It was everything that I desire audiences to experience when I perform. There was nothing flashy. It was just great musicianship. It was organic and tasty. I loved every minute.”

Clark says she feels like the luckiest person, because she can create and share her art and world.

“It feels good to get it out and allow other people in,” she says. “It’s a hard world out here. People are hurting and need hope, and I hope my music can bring a little light to someone else.”