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to be distributed nation wide, and thousands ended up dumped in a warehouse. In
1967 it was a country hit for Waylon Jennings!

On the years to 1970 The Rondels released at least 18 singles searching for the

elusive national hit, but none were successful.
The band line-up changed frequently, but they

remained a top bar band, albeit without making
any real money. So, by the end of the 60s, the
band split, and so did Delbert’s marriage - “my

marriage was shot to hell. Nothing was going
right. The way I saw it, I was still doing what I

was doing 10 or 12 years before. I wasn’t getting
anywhere”.

Although he was 30 years old, and things were

pretty much at rock bottom, the passion to play
music had not dimmed, and Delbert formed
various short-lived bands over the next few

years. However, with a new lady in his life, and the encouragement of old band mate
Glen Clark, the two of them packed up their worldly goods and moved to LA, a place

where many Texas expatriate songwriters and musicians found themselves. He and
Glen initially got a job at a veterinary supply company, but it was a hand to mouth
existence, in a dingy rented apartment, and his new lady soon became his old lady,

as she couldn’t stand that way of life. In his despair, Delbert sat down and wrote ‘Two
More Bottles of Wine’ - in 1978 it was a No.1 country hit for Emmylou Harris, not

that he saw any money from it.

Having renewed their musical acquaintance, Delbert and Glen started writing songs
together, and teamed up with another Fort Worth

musician, T-Bone Burnett, to record a three song
demo. Off the back of that, with a great deal of help
from independent agent Daniel Moore, they got a

deal from Atlantic subsidiary Clean Records, as
Delbert and Glen, and a self-titled album was

released. Both that, and the follow-up received a lot
of interest - critics described their work as very
much a Texas record, with all the blended influences,

and likened them to a seasoned bar band that was
playing mostly original material.

Unfortunately, the musical relationship between Delbert and Glen did not last, in the

words of Delbert “we were not very self-disciplined. Our habits were bad, and our
work ethic not really that good. We just ran out of gas”. With that he moved back to
Fort Worth.