Page 49 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2022

Delbert McClinton—Outdated Emotion—Thirty Tigers/
Hotshot HSR003

Delbert has been performing live since his very first
appearance in a bar band called ‘The Straitjackets’ in nineteen
fifty-seven aged seventeen, but, has now recently vacated the
stage. In his lengthy career he has been nominated for five
Grammys and awarded three. He was born in Lubbock, Texas
and at the age of eleven his family moved to Fort Worth,
Texas. In the early seventies, he relocated to Los Angeles and
in his sixty-plus years of recording and performing he has
been dubbed by the magazine Rolling Stone, ‘The Godfather of
Americana’. Now, with this, his new album he revisits the music of his past. During most of the
pandemic, Delbert was ensconced in Kevin McKendree’s Rock House Studio in Nashville,
where he recorded the sixteen numbers, five of which are originals, written and co-written by
Delbert.

Delbert, Kevin and his son, Yates McKendree, are the core musicians here playing; guitars,
upright bass, drums and piano, Jim Hoke provides tenor and baritone saxophones. The album
starts as it means to go on! With a rousing vamping piano and fat saxophone led version of
Lloyd Price’s ‘Stagger Lee’, this is followed by a splendid lazy sweet, steel guitar and dreamily
homey sawing fiddle version of ‘Setting The Woods On Fire’. The lazily, laconic low down
harmonica drawling blues Jimmy Reed’s ‘The Sun Is Shining’ is beautifully underpinned by a
delicious dawdling bass and drums. Delbert’s age-worn vocals entertain and most certainly
add a greater authenticity to the music. The blasting, piano led version of ‘Long Tall Sally’
certainly does justice to Little Richard. Delbert’s own swinging steel guitar and fiddle led, ‘Step
Too’, enjoyably harks back to the olden days. Jimmy Reed’s ‘Ain’t That Loving You Baby’, is
simply delightful as is Hank Williams’ steel and fiddle led ‘Jambalaya’.

Delbert’s own lazy late-night Jazz filled ‘Connecticut Blues’, gently wafts you away on a bed of
sweeping brush-work and seriously laid back piano—splendid! Hank William’s ‘Move It On
Over’, features a warm, lazy jazz-rich guitar, mixed with lively steel guitar and fiddle.

Fun, fun, fun, recommended!

Brian Harman.

Jim Dan Dee—Real Blues—Independent

J.D.D. is a Canadian band, based in Toronto, the members are

Jim “Dan Dee” Stefanuk; vocals and guitar, Shawn “Stix” Royal;
drums, Dwayne “Gameshow” Lau; bass and Jason “Bobby”
Sewerynek on saxophone. This is their second album; their
self-titled debut album was released in 2018. The band
recorded and self-produced the eleven numbers here, at The
Vault Studios, which consist of ten original compositions, and
one cover, which is, New Orleans, Guitar Slim’s (Eddie Jones)
‘The Things That I Used to Do’, here it is a raw, mournful tale
with a slow, growling guitar that more than matches Jim’s