Rick Clark's Music I Love Blog: Delbert McClinton
Delbert McClinton
I’ve needed to get lost in some feel-good music, and one artist who always hits the mark is Delbert McClinton. McClinton’s sound is a total roadhouse blend of funky blues, old-school r&b, rock and roll, a smidge of country, and slinky grooves. His band is a horn-driven powerhouse that has the perfect blend of grit and polish. I’ve included some live performances of McClinton and his band, which are outstanding. The late great Stephen Bruton is on guitar and Don Wise simply kills on saxophone.
I first discovered Delbert via the Delbert & Glen albums that came out in the early 70’s and followed his excellent string of solo albums through that decade, including Victim of Life’s Circumstances, Love Rustler and especially Second Wind.
Second Wind has a wealth of greasy classics especially “‘B’ Movie Box Car Blues,” “It Ain’t What You Eat, But The Way How You Chew It” and my personal favorite “Maybe Someday Baby,” which features some scorching background singing by Clyde King.
Delbert McClinton - Second Wind album cover
Delbert McClinton in 1979 - photo by Kirk West
Two years after Second Wind, Delbert would score his biggest hit with “Giving It Upi For Your Love,” and “Shaky Ground” from the album The Jealous Kind.
Delbert McClinton - The Jealous Kind (album art)
Before Delbert & Glen, McClinton enjoyed regional success in Texas with his band The Ron-Dels, who had a 1965 hit with “If You Want Me To, I’ll Go.” I think it must’ve received airplay in Memphis, because I vaguely remember it back then. I’ve included that track here. McClinton also played the memorable harmonica melody hook of Bruce Chanel’s 1962 hit “Hey Baby.” While touring with Chanel in England, McClinton hooked up with The Beatles and showed John Lennon a few blues harmonica techniques.
Delbert McClinton, Bruce Chanel and The Beatles
Over the years, songs McClinton has written or co-written (often with Gary Nicholson) been covered by numerous artists, including Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Sir Douglas Quintet, George Strait, Mountain, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Etta James, The Blues Brothers, Martina McBride, Vince Gill, Tanya Tucker and many others.
I absolutely love this next track, a co-write between Delbert and Gary Nicholson. What a groove! Killer piano playing, too. Richard Dodd mixed this and it perfection.
In 2004, Dan Goodman, Charlie Sexton, and I produced the third Los Super 7 album called Heard It On The X. Like the other Los Super 7 albums, this was an amalgam of great artists and players gathered around a theme. For the third album, we wanted to dive into a more Border “X” radio spirit. We loved Delbert and hoped he would get into the idea of the project enough to do a couple of songs. I presented him with the old Sunny & The Sunliners hit “Talk To Me,” and Willie Dixon’s “Live The Life I Love (Love The Life I Live),” which he immediately agreed to do. I’ve included those two tracks here in this Delbert sampler.
We had a killer band assembled in the studio for the tracks. The players included Charlie Sexton (guitar), Larry Fulcher (bass), Hunt Sales (drums), Arturo “Sauce” Gonzalez (organ), Denny Freeman (guitar), Spot Barnett (sax), Louie Bustos (sax), Al Gomez (trumpet), Jacob Valenzuela (trumpet) and Martin Wenk (trumpet).
If you are familiar with Delbert’s music, I’m sure you will have an alternate list of great songs I’ve missed here, but this is a solid little sampler. I hope it makes a decent introduction to an artist I regard as a true American roadhouse roots music legend.
