Delbert+mcclinton

This two-fer from the Australian Raven label is a part of a series of Delbert McClinton reissues. All of them come with new liner notes, session photos, and bonus tracks. These two albums, from 1980 and 1981, respectively, represent a renaissance for McClinton of sorts. While he never had a fallow period creatively, The Jealous Kind allowed him a renewed commercial viability even if it was short-lived. Both records were issued by the Muscle Shoals Sound imprint of Capitol Records and were produced by Barry Beckett with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section and horns. While the first disc is centered around diversity in its song choices – by everyone from Larry Henley to Bobby Charles to Van Morrison to Al Green to Jerry Williams – and took radical approaches to reinterpreting the material through soul, blues, funk, rock, and country, the latter chose hard-driving Southern-fried funk and R&B and a relatively close-to-the-vest approach in terms of material – most notably covers of "In the Midnight Hour" and Naomi Neville's "Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)".

This is Delbert's 27th studio album, and a bit of a return to his roots. While Delbert wrote just a handful of songs on the album, he puts his unmistakable footprint and charm on classics and deep cuts from some of his favorite songwriters such as Hank Williams and Jimmy Reed, pulling from across traditional blues, honky tonk, R&B, and more. The album was co-produced by Delbert and Kevin McKendree.

McClinton's first outing for the independent Austin label New West, Nothing Personal features more of the Texan harp player's loose blend of rock, blues, and honky tonk. He penned all the cuts here, sometimes in tandem with producer Gary Nicholson and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fame (Tench also sits in on keyboards for a few cuts). The lyrical concerns take in the usual stories of love and its travails, which McClinton consistently phrases in his own rough-hewn yet sweet way.

The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition. A formidable harmonica player long before he recorded as a singer, McClinton's career began in the late '50s, yet it took him nearly two decades to evolve into a bona fide solo artist. A critics' darling and favorite of his peers, McClinton never became a household name, but his resurgence in the '90s helped him earn more widespread respect from both the public at large and the Grammy committee.

Delbert McClinton always understood that it was more than just country music that went down at Texas roadhouses and honky tonks, and his before-his-time rootsy mix of blues, country, R&B, and soul made it hard for his various record labels to market him effectively, although his body of live and recorded work since he got his start as a harmonica player in the early '60s is a very impressive legacy. This set compiles 14 key tracks from his mid- to late-'70s period, including signature classics "Two More Bottles of Wine" and "Solid Gold Plated Fool," among others.

The best way to experience Delbert McClinton's rowdy roadhouse combination of blues, roots rock, R&B, country, and Tex-Mex is on-stage with a couple of hundred other fans on a Saturday night. In that spirit, McClinton's second live album, and first since 1989's Live from Austin, documents a single 2003 performance at Norway's Bergen Blues Festival. Originally intended only as a radio broadcast, this is an unpolished example of a typical show. Although it shares five songs with its single-disc predecessor, Live features McClinton weaving newer material in with hits he's been playing for decades, such as "B-Movie Boxcar Blues," "Giving It Up for Your Love," and "Going Back to Louisiana." McClinton's in terrific voice and spirits throughout, and his seven-piece band (including two horns) is tight but loose and ragged enough to grind through rockers with garage band enthusiasm.

TThe multi-Grammy Award winning artist is at the top of his game with his 19th studio album, Prick Of The Litter (Hot Shot Records/Thirty Tigers). The new offering captures the balance of soulful energy and restraint that the legendary performer has been delivering in his live performances for decades all over the world. On Prick of the Litter, Delbert incorporates a variety of styles, and as always, just enough to keep him comfortably outside the traditional marketing categories.

Roots music visionary” (Rolling Stone) Delbert McClinton returns with a swaggering and swingin’ new album, Tall, Dark & Handsome, on July 26 via Hot Shot Records/Thirty Tigers. Featuring 14 new, original new songs – all written or co-written by Delbert the album dives deep into the blues, Americana and beyond, bursting with horns, fiddle, accordion, blazing guitar work, back-up singers and McClinton’s charismatic rasp, proving Lyle Lovett’s claim that “if we could all sing like we want to, we’d all sound like Delbert McClinton.”