ARTIST INFO
Born in Kansas City, Paul grew up in a diversified environment. "My grandfather, the son of a German immigrant and a wild west pioneer, taught me the value of hard labor and the joy of building with my hands. My grandmother, a hearing-aid dependent, literature teacher, gave me a love for words and a spirit of compassion. My father, a trial attorney and tireless sports companion, showed me wisdom, knowledge, mercy, justice, and healthy competitiveness. Last, but not least, my mother, an interior designer and constant cheerleader, pointed me to the canvas with its limitless colors and depth of field.
Speaking of fields, while growing up, Paul's father had front row season ticket seats behind the visitor's dugout at the Kansas City A's baseball stadium, as well as midfield seats to the Kansas City Chiefs at Municipal Stadium. Watching big-league talent up close, especially Mickey Mantle and the Yankees, made it easier to dream stadium-sized dreams.
"Ironically, in that same stadium, I sat nearly that close to the Beatles when they came to town. A few months earlier, I had witnessed the Fab-four on the Ed Sullivan Show. They were so vibrant and joyful. I thought to myself, "I want to be happy.........so, that's what I want to do. Soon after, I got a Black Oyster Pearl Ludwig drum set like Ringo's and started a band with a couple of friends called the Kommotions."
Unfortunately, commotion was the path of his mid-teens. The whirlpool of drugs and social rebellion nearly drowned him. Mercifully, in April of 1970, after his freshman year of college was cut short due to student unrest, Paul moved from Kansas to a primitive log cabin at 9,800 feet on the Continental Divide, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
There, his life took a miraculous turn from commotion to devotion as he witnessed something far greater than what he had seen in those stadiums.
"I was an 18 year-old hippie, strong and independent, yet riddled with fear and hopelessness. Like so many disgruntled youth during the era of Vietnam and social unrest, I tried to find solace in God. I traversed the trails of an anemic denominational church experience, Transcendental Meditation, the Bghavad Gita, the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, grass, hash, opium, speed and countless LSD trips ..... they all took me to dead end canyons in my heart, mind and soul. One day, at the Post Office in Empire, Colorado, I received a box of books from my grandmother about Jesus Christ. That evening, I chose one and read it from cover to cover. At the end of the book I prayed the simple prayer to follow Jesus as his disciple. The following morning brought more than just another
pristine Rocky Mountain High. I remember waking up and sitting on the front porch and being acutely aware that something had drastically changed. I felt deeply loved, so new, so clean, so forgiven and unspeakably peaceful. I was also overwhelmed with gratitude for the absence of oppressive darkness. That void was immediately filled with joy. Concurently, song began to pour out of me as effortlessly as the water flowing in the stream next to our cabin."
Paul felt an immediate call on his life to sing a new song to the ends of the earth. In 1971, he, and a couple of his friends, settled in Denver and opened the Narrow Gate Coffeehouse. With the stage as a pulpit, he sang his newly penned songs to anyone with ears to hear. Splitting the three cent per bottle profit from the Pepsi machine with his friends, any thought of making a recording of his songs wasn't on his horizon. But, shortly into the adventure, through the generos funding of a middle aged man who attended every weekend, and the effect it was having on all of the wayward young people, Paul recorded his first project, "Song From The Savior - Volume One. The timing of that release thrust him into becoming one of the founding fathers of the Jesus Movement and trusted voices in the Contemporary Christian Music industry. During his 13 year association with Word Records in the 1970's and 1980's, Paul's songwriting and record producing placed him alongside artists like Phil Keaggy, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Love Song, Larry Norman, Andre Crouch, Honeytree, KeithGreen, Randy Stonehill, Barry McGuire, and many other pioneers.
In 1987, thankful for the work that he and the powerhouse label had accomplished, but diametrically opposed to the path they were going, Paul left the burgeoning CCM industry. Not fueled by bitterness, nor loss of peer friendships, his life after CCM fame didn't propel him toward the upper deck of the cruise ship. Fueled by the confidence of his calling, Paul raised his sails for new horizons.
"Leaving the comfort of singing to a cloistered demographic where everyone smiled and knew my songs, with too many big boats competing for slips in a small harbor, I joyfully accepted the challenge of setting sail for uncharted horizons. I've always believed that it's easier to find the wind than make it. Over the years, I've become more experienced at reading the tell-tale talons pinned to the main sail that harness that wind. The Holy Spirit has always been faithful to supply the power and direction for His purposes in me. I've never shyed away from exploring new musical genres. They always provide a clean canvas for me to express fresh lyrics of God's endless love. I enjoyed the years of commercial success, but make no mistake about it, I also embrace the reality that open sea sunrises and sunsets all come with horrific storms and shipwrecks in between. I've never had a Plan B. This is what I was created for. I've played at churches so small that my family nearly outnumbered the congregation and sang in front of a million people. I am mindful that first and foremost, I stand before an audience of One."
After more than four decades on this minstrel's voyage, Paul has no intentions of dropping his anchor. Even though he has completed 20 solo recording projects, (including his late 2016 release, "Branching Roots), " written over 700 songs, produced records for other artists, served as a worship leader/pastor, published photographer and author, Paul's voyage presses on. Paul Clark married His Dutch Fiancee Heidi van Hoof June 18 2021. Currently residing in Hermann Missouri.
"I'm humbled that Jesus is still providing wind for my sails. Without a doubt, God uses broken vessels. By His grace, I honor the past, embrace the present, and possess a living hope for the future. I want to finish strong in whatever path He chooses for me. Hardship to joy, the jewels are collected along the way, not, as some perceive, at the final destination. I long to see His face and hear His loving voice say, "Well done thy good and faithful servant, enter in to the joy of the Lord."
"Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have recieved mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the thruth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are persihing, whose minds the god of ths age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of our God, should shine on them.For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."
(II Cor. 4:1-7)