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Okay I give in. Maybe I didn't grow up a honky-tonk type of guy, but within the first five seconds-- "My ship came in and she sunk it, I was the toast of the town and she drunk it." --I was laughing and longing for a peanut-crunchy, beer-spilled floor. The swampy "Gotta Get It Worked On" and aforementioned "Living It Down" should be American Songwriting 101 at all so-called prestigious music institutions. Sure, it's the same damn three chords, but you can't fake this stuff. Goodness how everybody has tried. But then, if the guy taught John Lennon how to play the harmonica in 1962, who the blank is anybody to say anything about him? Lyrically, it can be said he's as real and raw as it gets. Whether humorous or as the plaintive, love-lost soul on "All There Is Of Me," this album is joyous, side-splitting, poignantly reflective, sad, and if anything, extremely personal. In the liner notes McClinton mentions he'd like to hear Ray Charles sing "All There Is." Damn straight. It'd be nice to come up with some more fancy adjectives, but I'm not sure if more of a complement is possible. The music is laid-back grit du jour, exemplified by the stammering "I'm just going to start playin' and everybody just kind of come in," at the beginning of "Desperation." Maybe you're a bebopper or fusion-head (like me), but if someone with a 40 year career makes an album this vibrant and it doesn't make you smile, something's wrong. Review by Don Zulaica information: |
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Delbert McClinton
