An Evening with Delbert McClinton and His Band

Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados and an international star in the realms of blues and traditional country music, cross-pollinating the genres into his own unique sound. Born in Lubbock, Texas on November 4, 1940, McClinton grew up in Fort Worth. Discovering the blues in his teenage years, he quickly became an accomplished harmonica player and found plenty of work on the local club scene, where musicians often made their living by playing completely different styles of music on different nights of the week. While McClinton’s career began in the late ‘50s, it was nearly two decades before McClinton evolved into a bona fide solo artist. Since 1980, when his sixth solo album The Jealous Kind sparked the top 10 hit “Givin’ It Up for Your Love,” McClinton has remained one of the most respected figures in American Roots music. In 1992, the man who gave John Lennon his first harmonica lesson (when McClinton toured England in the early ‘60s as part of Bruce Channel’s band) won his first GRAMMY Award for the duet “Good Man, Good Woman” with Bonnie Raitt. That was followed by a second win in 2003 for Nothing Personal in the Best Contemporary Blues Album Category.