FEATURE ARTICLE
Delbert McClinton: A musician's musician
by Seth Rogovoy(PITTSFIELD, Mass., May 21, 1997) -- After detailing the Texas rock 'n' roller's myriad accomplishments, the entry for Delbert McClinton in the "Penguin Encyclopedia for Popular Music" ends, "He'll be back again and again; the musicians all know who he is." McClinton laughed when this was pointed out to him recently. Just about the last thing he thinks of himself as is a "musician's musician." But McClinton isn't complaining about the characterization. "To read something like that is certainly flattering," said McClinton in a recent phone interview from his home in Nashville. "The one thing you want more than anything is for your peers to think you're good."
Indeed, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player from Lubbock, Texas, has long enjoyed the respect and support of his colleagues, most notably country-blues singer Bonnie Raitt, whose duet with McClinton, "Good Man, Good Woman," earned them both a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal by a Duo or Group in 1992.
McClinton will perform his Texas-bred rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll at the Studio in the former England Brothers building on North Street on Friday night. Local group Catfish Blue opens the show at 8:30; doors open at 6. For tickets call Berkshire World Travel at (413) 663-7646.
McClinton's career dates back to the late-'50s, when his, the Straightjackets, backed such blues greats as Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, Big Joe Turner and Howlin' Wolf during its tenure as the house band at a Fort Worth nightclub.
Having lent his harmonica skills to Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby," which topped the pop charts in 1962, McClinton toured Europe with Channel. While in England, McClinton tutored the leader of a then- unknown band on mouth harp, the results of which subsequently were heard around the world on the Beatles hit "Love Me Do."
In the '60s and '70s, with groups including the Ron-Dels and Delbert and Glen, McClinton scored further chart hits. But during those years, his greatest influence was felt in the success others had with his songs, including Doug Sahm, Waylon Jennings, Crystal Gayle and the Blues Brothers. Emmylou Harris took his "Two More Bottles of Wine" all the way to the top of the country chart in 1978.
The seeds of his personal comeback were being planted during this time, too, beginning with a friendship cemented at the Lone Star Cafe, the New York institution founded by Studio impresario Mort Cooperman. It was at the Lone Star, "a little bit of Texas right there in the middle of New York," as he describes it, that McClinton first met Don Imus, the radio shock-jock who often plays McClinton's records on his top-rated, nationally-syndicated program.
"He came to one of my shows there," as McClinton recalls. "At the time we were both doing really bad things, and both of us knew it was killing us and ruining our lives. And we commiserated a lot and we just got to be good friends. And we both started cleaning up at the same time."
By 1980, McClinton scored his first Top 10 hit, "Giving It Up For Your Love." He became a fixture at the Lone Star, riding the wave of the roots-rock revival which crested for him personally with a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 1989.
McClinton's highest profile moment was winning the Grammy with Raitt in 1992. "Anytime you win a Grammy, for whatever reason, it tends to validate you some way that you haven't been validated before," said McClinton. Subsequently McClinton released an album produced by Don Was, featuring guest appearances by Tom Petty, Melissa Etheridge, Francine Reed and Raitt.
These days, McClinton is focused on his annual Sandy Beaches Cruise, on which vacationers sail through the Caribbean with McClinton and the likes of Marcia Ball, Hal Ketchum, Lee Roy Parnell, Joe Ely, Wayne Toups and Zydecajun and Asleep at the Wheel. The veteran rocker also has his own bridge to the 21st century -- there's a toll free number (1- 800-DELBERT) for cruise information and a home page on the Internet www.delbert.com for all things McClinton.
He's also got a new album due out in the fall, which includes performances by Vince Gill, B.B. King, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Mavis Staples, Pam Tillis and Patty Loveless. The name of the recording is "One of the Fortunate Few." Said the gentle-spoken, self-effacing singer of the title, "That would be me."
If you would like to purchase any of Delbert McClinton's CDs on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right. [This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on May 21, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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