DELBERT MCCLINTON - Live From Austin, Tx DELBERT MCCLINTON

Delbert McClinton has performed on Austin City Limits seven times. This 1982 appearance is considered one of his most legendary performances.

You can call Delbert McClinton's music "Texas roadhouse blues" if you want to, but you might as well give up trying to pin a label on this guy. He was born in Lubbock, but you'd never know it from the sound of that growling, gravelly, funky voice.

Maybe growing up in Fort Worth explains the difference. He developed his R&B chops early on while playing in the house band at Jack's Place, a notorious rough-and-rowdy late-night joint. There, he shared the stage with legends Bobby Blue Bland and the infamous Jimmy Reed, Delbert's main man.

He later wandered out to Los Angeles for a while and helped propel Emmylou Harris's career with his song "Two More Bottles of Wine." He then teamed up with Glen Clark to release two classic albums that arrived before the rise of "progressive country."

—Terry Lickona (Producer, Austin City Limits)