Who is Delbert McClinton?
Does he have a Dylan connection?
Just a sketch about McClinton. He's a white southern soul/blues singer (yeah,
I'm uncomfortable with categorizations, too, but this is the best way that i
know to explain). He's been around for awhile. Had a hit record with "Givin'
It Up For Your Love (And Everything)," which may have been a duet w/ Bonnie
Bramlett, but I don't remember that for sure. I've always really liked
McClinton's voice. He's been on Austin City Limits a coupla times, too, so
you may have seen him there.
As for a Dylan connection, Craig's Q has got me
curious/thinking, too...but, nothing off the top of my head about this. Look
forward to other responses on this
Sorry, in my previous post I neglected to mention that the song "Corinna" is on Delbert's "Second Wind" album. It is, however, the Taj Mahal version from "The Natch'l Blues" rather than the Dylan version, which of course has a title which is twice as good.
Delbert is a great white blues/r'n'b/honky tonk singer from Texas with a
long and varied recording and performing career. I don't know of any
Dylan connection even though they mine a similar musical motherlode of
american groove music and have probably met on the road somewhere.
I have heard the story that it was a very young Delbert who taught John
Lennon some harmonica techniques while they shared a billing on a tour in
England in the early 60's.
One of the best shows I have ever seen was a
double bill of Delbert and Joe Ely(with ex-Rolling Stone sideman Bobbie
Keys on sax) at a bar in Bloomington about 8 years ago.
Delbert is also
a songwriter whose most well-known effort is probably "Two More Bottles
of Wine" which was covered by Emmy Lou Harris on Luxury Liner.
Just thought of a tenuous but real Delbert/Dylan connection. They were both on the bill of the first FarmAid concert, during which Bob played a fabulous set with the Heartbreakers and Delbert was backed up by John Mellancamp's band, I think.
I'ver read the other posts and I have to add a personal p.o.v. I have always regarded McClinton as the greatest r&b singer/player/writer who never broke through. Although I have never seen him in person, any film I have seen of him in concert bears this notion out. He just rocks. He's another one of those southern guys who has assimilated every one of his influences into a personal sound. He had that one potentially great album with the Bonnie Bramlett duet on it. (As mentioned by another poster) I personally think this was the best band he had; she brought to him what she brought to Delaney, only Delbert is more talented so it _really_ worked_ when it worked. I say the album is potentially great because, and in this regard it acts as a reflection on the rest of his recorded (studio) material, it is junked up with a lot of overproduced attempts at commercial breakthrough. It's really unfortunate.
He's most often seen nowadays on TNN up here in the once great, soon to be subdivided, white north. He still has it though; even performances in that format cannot hide his fonk.
David.
>Does he have a Dylan connection?
Everyone has a Dylan connection... ;-}
Then again, that blues singer/songwriter/harmonica player with the same name, born in Lubbock, Texas in 1940, taught John Lennon a few harp tricks, (remember "hey, baby" in 1962?), put out an album in the 70's called 'Victim of Life's Circumstances'. Could be some empathy there...
Delbert McClinton is a Texas R&B singer (white). He is a friend of Willie Nelson & I would suspect Dylan knows him at least in that context. Author of "B Movie Boxcar Blues":
"Met two girls in a light blue DeSoto One's name was Jane The other was plain But they both had a racing motor..."
This was covered on Belushi/Ackroyd's "Blues Brothers" album lo these many years ago.
McClinton is a great performer & very popular in these parts (New Orleans-Memphis grits'n'chitlin's circuit).
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 19:53:53 -0600 To: karlerik@telepost.no From: markg@leland.stanford.edu (Mark Gonnerman) Subject: Who's Who/Delbert McClinton I put the following together after looking through several online news sources, especially the Houston Chronicle: Delbert McClinton (b. 1940) has been in the music business for more than 35 years. He's a native of Lubbock, Texas. He cut his first record (under the name Mac Clinton) in 1960. In 1962 he was on tour in England with Bruce Chanel when he inadvertently made his way into music history. As he recalls it, "This girl had been following Bruce around. One night, she came up to our dressing room. She told us, 'You should come down and listen to this group.'" The group turned out to be the Beatles. McClinton taught John Lennon how to play the harmonica riffs he used on "Hey Baby!" Lennon used a similar lick on the Beatles' first hit, "Love me Do." In the mid-'60s, McClinton's group, the Rondels, made the national charts with "If you Really Want Me to I'll Go." The song was later covered by Waylon Jennings and Doug Sahm. In 1970 McClinton teamed up with fellow Texan Glen Clark for two albums that helped set the stage for the outlaw-country movement. His 1975 solo debut, "Victim of Life's Circumstances," combined honky-tonk with Southern rock. Subsequent albums moved in the direction of roadhouse R&B, culminating in a cover of Swamp Dogg's "Givin' It Up for Your Love" that reached the top 10 in 1980. McClinton then hit a long dry spell in which he underwent "a midlife crisis" while attempting to get out from under a debt to the Internal Revenue Service. In 1988, McClinton released his first album in eight years, "Live from Austin." He signed with Nashville's Curb Records, for which he has released two critically acclaimed albums, 1990's "I'm With You" and 1992's "Never Been Rocked Enough." He also recorded a Grammy-winning duet with Bonnie Raitt called "Good Man, Good Woman." There is a 1995 collection of his recordings entitled "Come Together." He now lives in Nashville. Of himself, McClinton says, "I'm country. I'm blues. I'm rhythm and blues. I'm rock 'n roll. I'm all the things I grew up on."