BIO:
When Delbert McClinton announces with his latest album that he has Room To Breathe, he sure ain't kidding. After more than four decades of making music, McClinton is breathing freely with the confidence and energy of an artist who knows that he has mastered his game. Still basking in the glow of a new Grammy® Award, he has followed up what The Wall Street Journal declared his “best recording ever” -- 2001's Nothing Personal -- with a set that displays even greater muscle, smarts, charm and soul.
A listen to the 12 tracks on Room To Breathe handily backs the contention that even after enjoying the best year of his long career, McClinton is now poised to triumph further. From the swampy and rollicking opening strains of “Same Kinda Crazy” to the album’s closing jump blues visit to “New York City,” Room To Breathe plays like the night of your life in God's own roadhouse. Co-produced by Delbert's longtime friend and songwriting partner Gary Nicholson, the bulk of the album was with his well-seasoned road band. Special guests like singer Bekka Bramlett and Texas guitar legend Bill Campbell stopped by. Horn and string sections were used to deepen the sound. It features 12 new McClinton originals written solo and in collaboration with such noted talents as Nicholson, Benmont Tench (from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) and Al Anderson (the former NRBQ guitarist turned hit Nashville songsmith). He is joined on “Lone Star Blues” by an honor roll of fellow Texans: Marcia Ball, Ray Benson, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Kimmie Rhodes and Billy Joe Shaver, along with honorary Texan Emmylou Harris.
McClinton's early memories include going as a child with his parents to see Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys at The Cotton Club in Lubbock, TX, where he was born. 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, 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.
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