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There's a quote from celebrated evangelist Billy Graham that singer-songwriter Jay Clark cites in the liner notes of his new CD, "I'm Confused."

It's attributed to Parade magazine, and it says this: "I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."

It's an apropos quote for Clark's state of mind these days, and a timeless one, considering it's from 1981. And while there's some interest in getting the title track of his new album (full title: "I'm Confused: A Christian's Lament of How the Right Wing of the Republican Party Has Distorted My Faith") out there before Tuesday, it's a song, Clark says, that's meant to be topical no matter the date.

"That song is definitely going to hit home with people right around the election time, but at the same time, I'd like to think it applies for good," Clark told The Daily Times this week. "It's not just a 2008 election year song -- it's about this marriage between the Christian right and the Republican Party that's really disturbing to me, and whether it's 2007or 2009, I think it still applies."

Clark is up front about his political stripes -- he's an independent, but he votes Democratic, he said, 99 percent of the time. However, he's also a Southern boy at heart -- the son of a Cumberland Presbyterian minister who grew up in rural Tennessee and still loves to fish and hike and hunt and spend time outdoors. His faith is an important part of who he is and always has been, and when President Bush was re-elected in 2004, it started his songwriting wheels turning.

"Both times, the election felt like it was a product of the Christian right, mostly about abortion and homosexuality," he said. "Kerry was not a great candidate, but I felt like my faith had been captured and used in a political way to keep an administration in office that had no business being there. This song is my way of kind of dealing with it.

"I mean, if Bush had been the CEO of a company and you and I and all those people were stockholders, and he said we needed to follow him on this venture and we all lost a bunch of money, we wouldn't have been able to get him out of there quick enough."

The song, and the entirety of "I'm Confused," is the product of a man who's reconciled himself with his musical career. He's a former student of Maryville College -- he attended from 1992 to 1994, when it became clear that if he wanted to pursue a career as a wildlife biologist, he'd need to transfer to the University of Tennessee. While at UT, he threw his lot in with Blount County's Robinella, and the two went from singing at churches to putting together a band called The String Beans.

That group included Cruz Contreras, who now plays with Clark as his backup outfit, the CCstringband. In 1999, Clark left East Tennessee to obtain his doctorate at Oklahoma State University, but he wouldn't be gone long. These days, he lives in Hazel Green, Ala., just south of the Tennessee line and works part-time as a wildlife biologist for the University of Tennessee.

He credits his wife, Stacy, with allowing him to pursue music, and after two albums -- "Pen to Paper" and "Progress," released a few years ago -- he's settled on a musical style that's best described as "folk-grass," a mixture of folk and bluegrass that showcases his rich tenor. Lyrically, however, "I'm Confused" may be his most confident album to date.

"I think a lot of it has to do with being uninhibited with regard to content," he said. "This go-around, I didn't think so much about the people that would be listening to it and stayed more true to myself. There's not a song on there that doesn't have a personal story behind it. They're not all heart-wrenching, but they all mean something to me.

"I think it's mainly just realizing that at the level I'm doing this at and the level I'd just as soon stay at, I don't make enough money to worry about people thinking about what I'm writing. I just want to be who I am and put it down on paper and arrange it into a song that enough people are going to like it to make it worth my time."

"I'm Confused" was constructed with a deadline in mind -- last fall, he began telling friends and fans that he'd have another record out within a year. He'd been playing the new material solo, and some of the songs were starting to turn heads when he decided to go into the studio. This time he around, he didn't compose the songs before rolling tape; the spontaneity, he added, gives "I'm Confused" a more creative sound.

Saturday night, he'll roll out "I'm Confused" at an official CD release show at The Laurel Theater in Knoxville's Fort Sanders neighborhood. No doubt, many Blount County residents will be in the audience; in addition to his time at Maryville College, he's also been active in a number of charitable events and concerts that took place over the summer at "The Shed" at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson.

More importantly, even though he's a resident of Alabama, he's still a Tennessee boy at heart, and eventually, he hopes to come back home.

"If there's a way we could make it over there, that's still a go," he said. "Musically, Knoxville and WDVX and that whole situation up there has become a Mecca for Americana music. It's so nice to come to town and know you're going to be supported by a radio station like WDVX.

"And when it boils down to it, it's all about friends. Your fans become friends, and they end up supporting you whether in the studio or buying your CDs."