Delbert McClinton (born 4 November 1940, Lubbock, Texas) is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist.
Active as a side-man since at least 1962 and as a band leader since 1972, he has recorded several major-label albums, and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock Tracks, and Hot Country Songs charts.
His highest-peaking single was "Tell Me About It", a 1992 duet with Tanya Tucker which reached #4 on the Country charts. He has also had four albums that made it to #1 on the U.S. Blues chart, and another that reached #2.
Career
Early Years
Delbert McClinton honed his craft working in a bar band, The Straitjackets, backing blues giants such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Jimmy Reed. His family moved to Ft. Worth when McClinton was 11, and just a few years later he started earning his Ph.D in real American music in a city known as a fertile incubator for a variety of styles. Out on the Jacksboro Highway at clubs like Jack's Place, and in west Fort Worth at legendary venues such as the New Blue Bird, Delbert mastered the craft of keeping the hard-drinking rednecks, cowpokes and roustabouts entertained all night long. And at the legendary Skyliner Ballroom, where McClinton's band was the only white act to play its Blue Monday nights AND be the backing band for the headliners, he received a first-class tutelage from the masters of blues music like Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. McClinton...
