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Road Warrior - Delbert McClinton

By John Holmes

he term ‘musician’s musician’ generally refers to someone who is highly
respected by his or her peers, but who is not that well known to the general

Tpublic. I would suggest that Delbert McClinton falls into that category, but,
from what I understand of him, I think he is quite happy with
that position.

Delbert McClinton is someone very hard to pigeon hole
musically - he has played and sung
rock & roll, R&B, blues, country, Tex

Mex and even a little pop, and
always with a style and authenticity
entirely suited to the genre he is

working in.

Though some blues aficionado
readers of BiTS might not be too

familiar with his work in that
sphere, in my opinion he has one
of the great blues and R&B

voices, and he’s no slouch on
the harmonica either!

Delbert was born to Herman and Vivian McClinton, in Lubbock, Texas, on 4th

November 1940. His Father was a truck driver, and had married Vivian, the 20 year
old widow of his close friend, and driver for the same company, Jack, when she was
left pregnant and with a 2 year old.

Lubbock,TX, known as “The Crossroads of the West”, is famous not just for Buddy
Holly, because other talented individuals such as Tanya Tucker, Waylon Jennings and
Jimmy Dean were also from the same place. Oddly, between the years 1940 and 1950,

Lubbock was second only to Albuquerque, NM, as the fastest growing city in the
USA, although it’s difficult to see why, in an area of flat dusty landscape.

Maybe it was its position as a crossroads that enabled the city to pick up radio

stations from as far away as Chicago, Dallas and Mexico. Consequently there was
music everywhere, including from the stores themselves, which often installed

speakers to play the music of Hank Williams, Bob Wills and the other stars of the
day. According to Delbert, in Lubbock, you either “grow cotton, go crazy or play
music. There just wasn’t a hell of a lot to do”. His early childhood memories of music
were of country, Cajun and World War II era songs, his favourites being Charles

Brown, Johnny Mercer and Nat King Cole.