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Road’, and a song from Dallas friend Jerry Williams, called ‘Giving It Up For Your
Love’.

The family having moved again, this time to Malibu, the marriage did not survive,
but the single release of the Jerry Williams song was a hit, reaching No.10 on the

Billboard chart, and staying in the charts for 6 months. His second Muscle
Shoals/Capitol album (”Plain From The Heart” - 1981) was released, the gigs moved
to concert halls, auditoriums and the college circuit, but he was still making little

money. It didn’t help that Muscle Shoals Sound had a falling out with Capitol, and
the label folded.

After the failure of his second marriage, Delbert eventually met Wendy Goldstein,

who worked for NBC, and was already a big fan of his. Delbert credits Wendy with
taking his career from that of road warrior to a critical and commercial success, as
well as sorting out his tax problems. By 1986 she was not only his partner, but also
his manager.

Having first appeared on Austin City Limits in 1976, Delbert was back again (for a
fourth time) in 1988, and one of the attendees was Lee Atwater, the campaign
manager for George W. Bush, the newly elected president. Atwater was a fan of

Delbert, and invited him to be part of the all-star blues review inaugural celebration.
After some deliberation he accepted the invitation, alongside Etta James, Albert
Collins, Joe Cocker, Stevie Ray

Vaughan and others. The show
was a huge success, and a DVD
was released, featuring four songs
from Delbert.

In January 1989 Delbert, now
married to Wendy, moved to
Nashville, and after nearly a
decade without a record deal,

Alligator released “Live From
Austin”, which received a Grammy
nomination for Best Con-

temporary Blues Album. Sub-
sequently, he signed to Curb Records, and released “I’m With You” (1990), and “Luck
Of The Draw” (1992), the latter including a Grammy winning duet with Bonnie Raitt

on ‘Good Man, Good Woman’.

At long, long last Delbert was, in his own words “rolling some sevens”, one of which
was a headlining performance at Carnegie Hall in 1994.

In 1997 Delbert’s contract with Curb wound up, and he moved to Universal/Rising
Tide for the album “One Of The Fortunate Few”, which included an all-star cast in
addition to his own band. However, once again the label folded straight after the
release, so it received no promotion. For a number of years thereafter, Delbert and