On his last album, 2006's Workbench Songs, songwriting legend Guy Clark conjured a culture clash fantasia in the song "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis."

"I was sitting here in my writing room with (BR5-49 lead singer) Chuck Mead, and it just popped out of my mouth: Cinco de Mayo in Memphis," Clark recalls from his Nashville home. "It just had this alliterative kind of sound to it. And then I got to thinking about the tug boats heading up the Mississippi and all these Mexican deck hands happening to be in Memphis on Cinco de Mayo. It was such a wonderful contradiction."

As you could almost imagine of a song with that title, party maestro Jimmy Buffett quickly covered "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis," and Clark, the dean of American singer-songwriters, notched another classic on the neck of his handcrafted guitar.

In a career that has lasted over 40 years, Clark has penned many such memorable tunes. Not as prolific as, say, Willie Nelson or his friend Rodney Crowell, his co-headliner at this weekend's Keith Sykes Songwriter Celebration at the Delta Fair & Music Festival, Clark prefers to craft his songs slowly, like the master luthier he is. (One best-of collection is appropriately titled The Craftsman.)

"You have to work at it," Clark says of songwriting. "You get flashes of inspiration every once in awhile that will get you started, but that's not enough. You have to follow it up with work."

Clark's dedication to getting a song just right has necessarily limited his output; he's released only a dozen studio albums since his 1975 debut, Old No. 1. But he's got one of the best averages in the game. And if classics like "Blowin' Like A Bandit" and "The Houston Kid" are not exactly hits, their artistry has won Clark plenty of respect from the generations of tunesmiths he and contemporaries like Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker helped spawn.

Clark was born in the West Texas town of Monahans, where his earliest musical influences were the Mexican folk songs he heard people around him playing. The influence of Mexican balladry is evident in such Clark staples as "Desperados Waiting For a Train."

When he moved to Houston in the late 1960s he broadened his musical palette.

"When I first started playing, all the songs I knew were in Spanish," he remembers. "In Houston at that time, you could still go out and see blues players like Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb."

Clark remembers the first song he ever wrote -- "sometime around 1967, '68" -- being "Step Inside This House," a number later made popular as the title track of a Lyle Lovett collection of favorite covers.

"I never recorded that song and had kind of forgotten about it," Clark says. "Lyle picked it up somehow, and I was doing some shows with him, Joe Ely and John Hiatt, a songwriters-in-the-round kind of thing. And one night Lyle pulled that song out and was about halfway done with it before I even recognized it."

From his earliest days Clark always fostered friendships with other songwriters, helping create that sense of community that is the hallmark of singer-songwriters. One of his best friends was the late Townes Van Zandt, a frequent performing partner though the two never wrote together.

"He'd only written two songs when I met him in the 1960s," Clark recalls. "But he was a very bright guy. I mean the smartest person I'd ever met. His use of the language was what I always admired about his writing. It's not just rhyming moon, June, spoon, you know. It approaches poetry, I guess. Or is poetry."

Another longtime songwriting friend is Memphian Keith Sykes, whom Clark met in Texas in 1972. (The album artwork for Sykes' 2001 album Don't Count Us Out is an homage to the cover of Clark's Old No. 1). And Clark goes out of his way to mentor younger performers like Todd Snider, also performing on this weekend's lineup.

"Heck, I just like good songs," he says about his songwriting relationships. "I'm probably the one that needs the mentoring."

In preparation for his Memphis appearance, Clark has been dusting off "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis" and may be ready to perform some songs from his next slow-brewing recording project.

I'm always working on a new record, but I'm getting closer than I was," Clark jokes of his next collection. "Another two years I'll be ready. It just gets harder and harder to come up with 12 songs or 10 songs you can stand behind."

Sykes organized two nights of performances by singer-songwriters for the Delta Fair & Music Festival at the Agricenter International.

A native of Raleigh, Sykes has been a respected performer and composer for nearly 40 years. He's released 10 albums on his own and provided material for such artists as Rosanne Cash, the Judds and Jimmy Buffett.

His Songwriter Celebration this weekend draws on some of the talented tunesmiths he has brought to town over the years as part of songwriters' nights around town. Besides Texas headliners Clark and Crowell, they include Hi Rhythm Section guitarist Teenie Hodges and former Memphian Todd Snider. Even performers fairgoers don't know by name may be familiar through their credits, including Songwriter Hall of Fame members Richard Leigh ("Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue") and Roger Cook ("I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing").

Delta Fair & Music Festival at Agricenter International

The Keith Sykes Songwriter Celebration is on the Delta Stage of the fair. Fair admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children ages 5-12. For more information visit Deltafest.com.

FRIDAY

Main Stage

7 p.m. -- Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors

9 p.m. -- The Avett Brothers

10:30 p.m.- Jason D. Williams

Delta Stage

7 p.m. -- Keith Sykes

7:50 p.m. -- Richard Leigh

8:40 p.m. -- Roger Cook

9:30 p.m. -- Todd Snider

10:35 p.m. -- Rodney Crowell

Crossroads Stage

7:30 p.m. -- Rice Drewry

9 p.m. -- Bryan Hayes and the Retrievers

SATURDAY

Main Stage

11 a.m. -- Disney's High School Musical 2 Live Stage Performance

12:30 p.m. -- Brittany Russell & The Trunk Monkeys

2 p.m. -- Disney's High School Musical 2 Live Stage Performance

5 p.m. -- O Happy Day Gospel Showcase

7 p.m. -- Sweetwater Jade

9:30 p.m. -- Michael McDermott

Delta Stage

7 p.m. -- Keith Sykes

7:50 p.m. -- Larry Joe Taylor

8:40 p.m. -- Fred Knobloch

9:30 p.m. -- Teenie Hodges

10:20 p.m. -- Guy Clark

Crossroads Stage

Noon -- Bluegrass Showcase

4 p.m. -- Max Pickard

8:30 p.m. -- The Sirens: Rebecca Almond, Holly Cole and JoJo Jefferies

SUNDAY

Main Stage

1 p.m. -- Ephie Johnson and Neighborhood Christian Center Choir

2:40 p.m. -- Jerod Wilson

4:00 p.m. -- Highroad Bluegrass Band

5 p.m. -- Bellevue Baptist Church Jazz Band and Choir

6 p.m. -- The Blackwoods

7 p.m. -- Jeremy Horn

7:50 p.m. -- Joy Whitlock

8:30 p.m. -- Memphis Mass Choir

Crossroads Stage

3:30 p.m. -- Battle Victorious

5:30 p.m. -- Circle of One