Tracks recorded at Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN
Overdubs recorded at Tall Cotton Studios, Masterfonics Studio Six, The Tracking Room & The Music Mill, Nashville, TN
Mixed at The Sound Kitchen, Franklin, TN
Mastered at Mastertonlcs, Inc., Nashville, TN
Bekka Bramlett appears courtesy of Almo Sounds, Inc.
Patty Loveless appears courtesy of Epic Records
Pam Tillis appears courtesy of Arista/Nashville
Lee Roy Parnell appears courtesy of Career Records
Vince Gill appears courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.
Lyle Lovett appears courtesy of Curb/MCA Records, Inc.
John Prine appears courtesy of Oh Boy Records
B.B. King appears courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.
IT WAS CHARLES OLSON, A POET BIGGER THAN TEXAS, WHO SAID, "He who controls rhythm/controls."
These words, a majesty of rhythm and wisdom unto themselves, were first published in 1954, the year of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," of Elvis Presley's first little record; the year most commonly associated with the dawn, the first full blast, of rock'n'roll. And though they are words that perfectly define and express the essence of the power of the greatest poets, from Sappho to Dante. indeed to Olson himself, they define and express the essence of the power of the greatest rock'n'rollers as well, from Big Joe Turner to Jerry Lee Lewis to the Rolling Stones to the guy whose latest record here lies at hand.
Delbert McClinton is a song of the afterglow of that dawn, that first full blast. Born in Lubbock, raised in Fort Worth, he wrote his first song on a scrap of Kotex wrapper in a high-school classroom, made his first record in 1959, and in the years since has lived a roadhouse odyssey - from Scylia to Charybdis, from the land of lotus-eaters to the land of shades and back - an odyssey whose telling yet awaits its honky-tonk Homer. And in the course of that odyssey, the kid who set that rhyme to wrapper became a troubadour of the good and the bad, the light and the dark, the places of the heart and of the neonalloyed will. Above all, he became a master of rhythm, of that elusive and immanent, subtle and primeval thing - call it power, call it meter, call it theophany of beat - that has, in its way, bound and made a flowing of them all, from Hesiod to Ellington to Big Joe to Dylan to the Stones, to those yet unknown working out the endless dances of the soul in basement joints and backrooms where pulse and magic merge.
I have known Delbert for close on a quarter of a century now, and so perhaps cannot speak of him without the sweet prejudice that friendship brings. But long before that friendship took root, his music had claimed me, spoken to and for me, and held me, evoked my evilest and lovingest grins.
There are in the air and in the breeze powers that cannot be captured, that cannot live outside and apart from their moment. For me, the greatest of Delbert's recordings of the greatest of his songs, love and play them again and again as I do - part of the soundtrack of my life, of my own often disparate and sometimes intersecting or parallel odyssey - the greatest of them cannot approach the ineffable sweet sorcery of being there, in that moment, that breeze, that breath, as he draws forth, rides - yes, controls, as Olson had it - the rhythm of, say, "Linda Lu," a song that he has never deigned to record in a studio, and though he has long promised me a live tape of it, has never deigned to deliver.
The music for which these words are window-dressing lied close by. Me, right now, I feel like hearing "Sending Me Angels," and that other one, the one that evokes those old and wicked ways. And so, for now, no further phrases need be turned.
- NICK TOSCHES
Special Thanks
Don Imus; Gary Nicholson; Emory Gordy, Jr. and his staff; Ken Levitan; Joel Hoffner; Teresa Blair; My friends at Rising Tide; Don and Judy Engel; Mark Passin; Donna Cole-Brule; Marvin Rouillard; David Hickey; Paul Buchanan; Jan Springer; Nick Tosches; Glen Clark; Donnie Fritts; Chris Baca; Charles Sussman and his staff; Bob DiPiero; Cary Baker; Penny Chan; Kitchen Sink; Lee Cotten; Keith De Armond; Don Wise; Mike Duke; Terry Townson; Bryan Owings; Ron Eoff; Mark Harmon & John McElroy; Hutch Hutchinson; Benmont Tench; Jim Keltner; Reese Wynans; Steuart Smith; Tom Roady; Jim Horn; Mike Lawler; Bill Campbell; Russ Marlin; Marc Frigo; Greg Droman; Chris Davie; Michael McNamara; Brian McNamara
Special Angels
Wendy Goldstein; My Children; Monty, Clay and Delaney; Harriet Sternberg; Gary and Sandra Turlington; Bekka Bramlett; Patty Loveless; Pam Tillis; Lee Roy Parnell; Vince Gill; Mavis Staples; John Prine; Lyle Lovett; Robin Hammesfahr: Boz Scaggs; Valerie Hansen; Barbara Nicholson; Sharon Rice; Ro and Mel; Teresa and Carolyn; Marty and Ev; "Potatohead & Bridge"; Jim, Betsy, & Rose; Jonell Mosser; Dayna Cavanaugh
MANAGEMENT:
Harriet Sternberg Management, Inc.
Harriet Sternberg/Wendy Goldstein
4268 Hazeltine Avenue
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
(818) 906-9600/(818) 906-1723 fax
BOOKING:
DaVid Hickey Agency
DaVid Hickey
P.O. Box 719
Aledo, TX 76008
(817) 441-5488/(817) 441-5484 fax
FAN CLUB:
Delbert McClinton Fan Club
Valerie Hansen
P.O. Box 218248
Nashville, TN 37221
INDEPENDENT PUBLICIST:
Baker/Northrop Media Group
Cary Baker
(818) 501-0056/(818) 501-0068 fax
FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.delbert.com or call 1-800-DELBERT
(P) (C) 1997 Rising Tide, A Universal Music Company
Curb Music Comapny/Universal Records, Inc.
Distributed in the local BMG company, a unit of BMG Entertainment.
All trademarks and logos are protected.
BIEM/GEMA
Made in the EU
HDCD/High Definition Compatible Digital are Registered Trademarks of Pacific Microsonics, Inc.
Compact Disc Digital Audio
F: UN540
LC 1056
6 0121 2 0
One Of The Fortunate Few (1997) - 