Delbert McClinton grew up singing and playing in the gutbucket clubs of Fort Worth, and in a sense he's never left. He still has a voice that will roar through the noise of a barroom or through any kind of mental clutter you might bring to one of his concerts. Delbert and his band backed the absolute royalty of deep blues as they came through town–Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and the incomparable Howlin' Wolf–and all that he saw and heard, he absorbed and passes along in his own music. (He gave John Lennon some pointers on the harmonica, to boot.) Delbert's recent album"Cost of Living" earned Grammy nominations for both Best Contemporary Blues Album and Best Male Country Vocal, which shows the futility of trying to put a label on his music; it's just raw, passionate American honky-tonk singing at its best. His latest, "Acquired Taste," loses none of the grit but is in its way one of the wisest and most reflective albums of his 40-year career.