Texan   Gary Clark Jr has gone from A to Z. The A stands for Austin. The 31-year-old left his home town, relocating to New York and more recently Los Angeles â€" cities more suited to WA-raised fiancee Nicole Trunfioâ€[TM]s work as a supermodel.
That said, the hard-touring Clark jokes that he â€oepretty much lives on the tour bus with a bunch of smelly-ass dudesâ€.
The Z stands for Zion, his baby son with Trunfio born on   January 11 this year. Clark describes fatherhood as â€oeamazing ... mind-blowingâ€.
With his laid-back drawl flowing down the phone from Austin, where he was shooting music videos, Clark says Zion is already into music.
â€oeHeâ€[TM]s definitely starting to react to music, starting to jump up and down,â€ Clark says. â€oeBut for some reason when he comes to my shows he falls asleep. I havenâ€[TM]t quite figured out why. I donâ€[TM]t know if Iâ€[TM]m putting him to sleep or heâ€[TM]s done with it.â€
Home and family play pivotal roles on The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, his follow-up to 2012 major label debut, Blak and Blu.
Trunfio inspired several songs on the new album, including the retro pop number Our Love, while the psychedelic blues of Star reflects on his relationship with Zion and his own father. â€oeTheyâ€[TM]re all love songs, I guess,â€ Clark says.
His mother called him Sonny Boy growing up, while Slim was the nickname more experienced musicians gave Clark as he prowled Austinâ€[TM]s blues bars as a young cat.
While the world only discovered him a few years ago, Clark started playing guitar nearly 20 years ago and released his first album before he had graduated from high school.
While the smooth-voiced prodigy with insane guitar chops was a fixture on the Austin blues scene, he found it difficult to leave his city, his bars and his people when success put him on the road and around the world.
â€oeMy mom said â€˜Austin will always be here. Weâ€[TM]ll be here. Check it out, let us know how it isâ€[TM],â€ he laughs.
Clark, whose fans include Eric Clapton, Alicia Keys and Barack Obama, returns to his roots on The Story of Sonny Boy Slim. He wrote, produced, arranged and played pretty much everything on the album.
â€oeI wanted to push myself to the limit and try to take on a project where I was completely in charge,â€ he says.
 â€oeIt felt like I was getting away from myself a little bit. Honestly.â€
Clark explains that while he made his name as a guitarist in blues clubs, he was also playing piano, drums and bass guitar, fiddling with drum machines and DJ turntables. He was also learning trumpet, violin and saxophone.
â€oeI was on the road playing shows, just out front being the guitar guy,â€ he says. â€oeI missed that time I had to be creative and figure out all these different things. 
â€oeI felt like I wanted to get back to who I was as a musician and not neglect the things that inspire me.â€
While taking on all aspects of making The Story of Sonny Boy Slim was time consuming, Clark says it was â€oethe most comfortable Iâ€[TM]ve felt in a long timeâ€.
The genre-hopping album of blues, soul, R&B, funk, rock and pop features a few guests, including backing vocals from his younger sisters, Shawn and Savannah.
 â€oeI would like to say that theyâ€[TM]re heavily influenced by their big brother,â€ Clark chuckles.
The busy musician plays shows supporting Foo Fighters in the US starting today  and tours Europe and the UK before coming Down Under for the Falls and Southbound festivals over the new year. Clark says his little three-piece will spend Christmas in Perth with Trunfioâ€[TM]s family.
â€oeFirst time I came to Australia I felt at home,â€ he says. â€oeAnd itâ€[TM]s not just because Nicoleâ€[TM]s family is there. Thereâ€[TM]s a certain sense of comfort.   Maybe itâ€[TM]s the people â€" fun-loving, outdoors-y ... just cool.
â€oeMe, Nicole and Zion will come down and spend time with her folks and have some holidays there. Zion can get to know his cousins.â€
The Story of Sonny Boy Slim  is released today. Gary Clark Jr  plays Southbound, held in Busselton, on   January 8-10. Tickets from Moshtix.