Gary Clark Jr.

The blues is an old man’s game, but even the most wizened howlers were young once. Even at the age of 27, Austin native Gary Clark Jr. can’t lay claim to youth: Having been a fixture in the Live Music Capital since his early teens, Clark has racked up more accolades and credits than 12-bar peddlers more than twice his age. Clark’s self-titled EP captures some raw-throated blues-rock in the vein of The Black Keys, but it also finds him applying his chiming guitar tone to quiet-storm R&B and old-school doo-wop. That down-and-dirty mix reached ears outside of Austin when Warner Bros. dropped Clark’s major-label EP debut, The Bright Lights, in August.

Updated 12/05/2011