Delbert McClinton: Candid Recordings

For a road warrior like Delbert McClinton, making a live album should be no big thing. But recording Live was even easier because he didn’t know he was doing it.

McClinton was aware one of the six shows he and his band did on a 10-day trip to Norway would be broadcast in real time. But the veteran singer and harmonica player forgot about it until he arrived at the gig and noticed a mobile recording studio. After the show, the engineer handed him a CD. When he played it, he knew it was release-worthy.

“It was a good night,” he recalls. It was a good night for fans, too. The double disc alternates between McClinton’s barrelhouse rhythm-and-blues and his regret-tinged ballads, each sung in a voice that connects the rough texture of tree bark to the sturdiness of hardwood.

The location may have had something to do with it. “They love us in Norway, so we go in knowing that. For whatever reason, it’s almost like playing in Texas,” says the Nashville-dwelling Lubbock native. McClinton already has almost enough songs for another studio album. His 2001 release, Nothing Personal, earned him a Grammy, and 2002’s Room to Breathe scored a follow-up nomination. His most recent studio effort was a duet with fellow Texan Reneé Austin for her new album, Sweet Talk. McClinton heard the singer when she opened a show for him last year and he was so impressed, he invited her to perform on his upcoming Delbert McClinton and Friends Sandy Beaches Cruise. The 10th-anniversary edition launches in January.

They recorded in Nashville —“as opposed to her doin’ it in one part of the country and me doing mine [in another]. We were lookin’ into each other’s eyes, which is the best way to do it.”

He admits it’s not easy to tell the difference between in-person and transmitted collaborations, but he playfully observes, “It’s just like makin’ love. If you’re just doin’ it on the phone, it’s not as good. … You don’t get the little intricate moves in.” He hits the crux of the issue when he notes that it isn’t a matter of detecting differences. It’s simply harder to enjoy the music if you know that’s how it was done. It just goes to show … ignorance can be bliss. McClinton’s sure Live wouldn’t be as strong if its recording had been pre-arranged.

“Good things happen when you don’t plan ‘em, you know what I’m sayin’? Life is what goes on while you’re bidin’ your time.”