Singer/songwriter/guitarist Clay McClinton’s musical sound is woven together with rawhide and hemp, barbwire and willow reed. It’s that eclectic sound born in Texas where honky tonk, Delta blues and soulful rock meld seamlessly. Clay’s music introduces “alternative country” to “contemporary blues,” and the two genres become fast friends.
His new CD, Son of a Gun, boasts plenty of gutsy, gritty lyrics laid on a strong musical bed. “The Man I Wanna Be,” is an inward-looking, country conversational tune with a haunting melody. Clay moves from there to the Texas romp of “Worn Down To The Bone,” and the two-stepping lost-love tune, “Missing You,” which is one of two songs on the album that he co-wrote with his dad, Delbert McClinton. Delbert provides backup vocals on “Missing You” and also co-wrote “Howlin’ at the Moon.”
“This album has a lot more co-writes than my first one,” Clay says. “I like writing by myself, and I have a lot of songs under my hat that I’ve written, but I’m enjoying co-writing as well. I’ve been in Nashville for a couple of years now, so I’ve expanded my circle of talented writer and musician friends.”
Like his debut CD, Out of the Blue, this project is mostly self-produced, with Delbert’s keyboard player, Kevin McKendree, adding his ear to some of the cuts. “A Thing For You” was actually written in the studio with Kevin and Delbert when Clay brought in the musical base without lyrics. The only song Clay didn’t write is “Listenin’ to the Rain.”
One of the differences between his first CD and Son of a Gun is that Clay used mostly studio musicians for Out of the Blue. Now he has his own road band, and many of the cuts feature those musicians. His piano player, Andrew Bett, not only plays on most of the cuts, he also co-wrote “The Man I Wanna Be.” Clay’s drummer, Jim Evans, provides drums and percussion to all the cuts.
“I have a great band, and since the release of my first CD, my focus has been on getting out of town,” Clay says, “getting on the road and building fans one by one. We’ve done 140 dates this year, from Key West to Rockland, Maine, to Evergreen, Colorado.”
Few artists have pursued their careers with the clarity and conscious exploration that mark Clay’s self-designed path. He grew up in Fort Worth, TX and began learning guitar and harmonica from both his father and older brother, Monty. At 16, he began to pursue music as a career more seriously. Being his father’s son, it’s not surprising that Clay’s eclectic influences lean toward songwriters — Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell, Bob Dylan, J.J. Cale and Ray Charles. But his personal progression also includes country and bluegrass legends such as Hank Williams and Doc Watson.
“I always thought, growing up around Dad, that playing music was the coolest thing,” he says. “I never really thought about doing anything else.”
As a teenager, Clay played in a couple of bands around Fort Worth, but after graduation he moved to Austin. That would be the first of a series of conscious steps towards his self-development as a musician and songwriter and, eventually, producer as well. In Austin, he sat in with bands, but mostly absorbed the creative atmosphere that clings to the town like heat waves over Texas asphalt. Clay was never interested in having strictly a cover band. From the beginning he wanted to develop his repertoire of originals before taking to the stage full time.
The twenty something’s next move was actually a skip across the pond for a trek around Europe. He and a couple of musician friends spent four months playing music in hostels.
When he returned to the states, Clay decided on a move to Flagstaff, AZ. Soon afterwards, he began playing in two distinctively different bands whose other players also performed predominately their own music. The Blues Project drew on Texas stomp and southern blues for their sound, while Second Harvest was an acoustic blues/bluegrass/folk band. Clay immersed himself in playing live, performing five or six nights a week with experienced players. After a couple of years in Flagstaff, Clay added The Clay McClinton Band to the mix, in which he and his Telecaster took center stage.
Clay’s more recent relocation, to Nashville, was another conscious move. This time it was to hone his writing and production skills in a town nicknamed “Tin Pan South” because of the rich songwriting community. It was a move his father had made more than 15 years before.
From Fort Worth to Austin to Flagstaff to Nashville, with a sojourn to Europe in between, Clay’s journey has clicked along a single track — one designed to expand and develop his musical career. Son of a Gun takes another step along his path, further developing Clay’s studio experience and providing more original material for his band to perform on the road.
“I love every aspect of this career,” Clay says. “I like writing and producing, but I also love getting on stage in front of fans all over the country. I’ve got a great, tight band, strong original material, and most of all, great fans. I’m just having a blast.”
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