Delbert McClinton May 16, 2010

A critics' darling and favorite of his peers, the venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.

A formidable harmonica player long before he recorded as a singer, McClinton's first solo album, Victim of Life's Circumstances, was released in 1975; although he was marketed as part of the emerging progressive country movement, McClinton's music was too indebted to blues and R&B to neatly fit that tag. Regrouping he then switched labels to the Muscle Shoals Sound imprint and his 1980 label debut, The Jealous Kind, gave him his first Top 40 single in "Givin' It Up for Your Love," which hit on both the pop and country charts.

His biggest break, though, came in 1991 when he was tapped for a duet with Bonnie Raitt on her Luck of the Draw album. "Good Man, Good Woman," brought McClinton his first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal, Duo or Group, and suddenly raised his profile tenfold. He capitalized with 1992's Never Been Rocked Enough and landed his biggest hit single since 1980, "Every Time I Roll the Dice." Later that year, he hit the country charts with another duet, this time with Tanya Tucker on "Tell Me About It."

McClinton next returned in 2001 with another acclaimed effort, Nothing Personal. It proved to be one of the most popular recordings of his career, ending up one of the year's biggest hits on Billboard's blues chart and winning him another Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

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