DELBERT McCLINTON

El venerable Delbert McClinton es una leyenda entre los aficionados a la música de raíces de Texas, no sólo por su increíble longevidad, sino por su habilidad para combinar country, blues, soul y rock & roll como si no hubiera distinciones entre ninguno de ellos en el mejor momento -honora la tradición de Texas. Formidable a la armónica mucho antes de grabar  como cantante, la carrera de McClinton comenzó en los últimos 50s, con todo le tomó casi dos décadas para convertirse en un artista más popular . Un favorito de los críticos y de sus compañeros, McClinton nunca  se caracterizó por su sociabilidad , pero su resurgimiento en los años 90 le ayudó a ganar el respeto más generalizado tanto del público en general como del comité de los premios Grammy.

Delbert McClinton (born November 4, 1940) is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist.

Active as a sideman since 1962 and as a band leader since 1972, he has recorded albums for several major record labels and singles that have reached the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock Tracks, and Hot Country Songs charts. His highest-charting single was "Tell Me About It", a 1992 duet with Tanya Tucker, which reached number 4 on the Country chart. Four of his albums have been number 1 on the U.S. Blues chart, and another reached number 2.

He was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in March 2011, along with Lee Roy Parnell, Bruce Channel, Gary Nicholson, and Cindy Walker.

McClinton was born in Lubbock, Texas, and relocated with his family to Fort Worth, Texas, when he was 11 years old..He worked in a bar band, the Straitjackets, who played backing Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Jimmy Reed. McClinton recorded several regional singles before hitting the national chart in 1962, playing harmonica on Bruce Channel's "Hey! Baby". On a tour with Channel in the United Kingdom, McClinton instructed John Lennon on the finer points of blues harmonica playing.

McClinton formed the Ron-Dels, sometimes called Rondells, with Ronnie Kelly and Billy Wade Sanders. The band had a chart single in 1965 with "If You Really Want Me to I'll Go."

Relocating to Los Angeles in 1972, McClinton partnered with fellow Texan Glen Clark to perform a combination of country and soul music. They achieved a degree of artistic success, releasing two albums before splitting and McClinton embarked on a solo career.

Emmylou Harris had a number 1 hit in 1978 with her recording of McClinton's composition "Two More Bottles of Wine," and his "B Movie Boxcar Blues" was covered on the first album by the Blues Brothers, Briefcase Full of Blues.

McClinton's 1980 album, The Jealous Kind, contained his only Top 40 hit single, "Givin' It Up for Your Love", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. After an inactive period during much of the 1980s, McClinton made a return in 1989 with the Grammy-nominated album Live From Austin, recorded during an appearance on the television program Austin City Limits and co-produced by saxophonist Don Wise.

In 1991 he won a Grammy Award for his duet with Bonnie Raitt, "Good Man, Good Woman", and reached the Top 5 of the Country chart with "Tell Me About It", a duet with Tanya Tucker.[2] He reentered the Billboard charts in 1992 with the album Never Been Rocked Enough, which included the charting "Every Time I Roll the Dice" and a cover of John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith in Me."

McClinton recorded the opening title song, "Weatherman", for the 1992 Bill Murray film Groundhog Day. The fledgling label Rising Tide released One of the Fortunate Few in 1997, before the label went out of business.

2000–present[edit]

McClinton releasing two studio albums in the early 2000s for New West Records, which also issued Delbert McClinton Live in 2003, a compilation album of songs from throughout his career. In 2006, he won a Grammy Award for his album The Cost of Living in the category Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Etta James included two McClinton songs on her album of 2003, Let's Roll (album)

McClinton was a judge for the fourth annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

He is featured of the documentary Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey, by the filmmaker Jay Curlee.

He performs on the recently released (Sept 30 2016) "Frankie Miller" album "Double Take" and is merged with Frankie's voice in a track called "Beginner at the blues" The songs on this album were recorded as Demo's by Frankie Miller prior to his brain haemorrhage in New York in 1994. It is amazing how these Demo's have been rescued and lovingly Duetted with some big names such as Delbert McClinton, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Steve Cropper, Willie Nelson, Huey Lewis, Kid Rock, Kim Carnes, Joe Walsh, Bonnie Tyler, Lenny Zabatek, Paul Carrack, Francis Rossi, John Parr, Brian Cadd, Stuart Emerson, Tomoyasu Hotei, Steve Dickinson, Kiki Dee and Jose Antonio Rodriguez, and Frankie's old band Full House.