Live

Disc 1
1	Old Weakness (Comin' on Strong)
2	Leap of Faith
3	I'm With You
4	I Wanna Thank You Baby
5	I Want to Love You
6	Smooth Talk
7	Maybe Someday Baby
8	Don't Want to Love You
9	New York City
10	Squeeze Me In
11	I've Got Dreams to Remember
Disc 2
1	Why Me?
2	Rebecca, Rebecca
3	Going Back to Louisiana
4	When Rita Leaves
5	Livin' It Down
6	Giving It Up for Your Love
7	B-Movie Boxcar Blues
8	Little Fine Healthy Thing

Barnes & Noble

Recorded for Norwegian radio on a night when he and his band were exploding with funk, blues, and rock, Delbert McClinton's first live album both explains his recent acclaim and begs the question of why it took so long for everyone to appreciate what he's been laying down for the last three decades. Live borrows from the past on a fiercely smoking rendition of McClinton's 1980 R&B classic, "Giving It Up for Your Love," and "B-Movie Boxcar Blues," energized by an extended blues jam that features Delbert wailing and moaning on his harp like nobody's business. The set also takes a firm stand in the present with the grooving, horn-fired southern funk of "Leap of Faith" and lays on the heartbreak in two beautiful, blues-based tear-jerkers, "Don't Want to Love You" and a wrenching cover of Otis Redding's "I've Got Dreams to Remember." That's the template for a memorable night, although the emphasis is clearly on the up-tempo killers. Already wise to his most recent studio gems, the Grammy-winning Nothing Personal and 2002's powerhouse Room to Breathe, McClinton fans will find much to chew on in the soul stews of "I Wanna Thank You Baby," "New York City," and "A Fine and Healthy Thing," among others. Until his next round of new material surfaces, Live is one steamroller of a career overview. David McGee

All Music Guide

The best way to experience Delbert McClinton's rowdy roadhouse combination of blues, roots rock, R&B, country, and Tex-Mex is on-stage with a couple of hundred other fans on a Saturday night. In that spirit, McClinton's second live album, and first since 1989's Live from Austin, documents a single 2003 performance at Norway's Bergen Blues Festival. Originally intended only as a radio broadcast, this is an unpolished example of a typical show. Although it shares five songs with its single-disc predecessor, Live features McClinton weaving newer material in with hits he's been playing for decades, such as "B-Movie Boxcar Blues," "Giving It Up for Your Love," and "Going Back to Louisiana." McClinton's in terrific voice and spirits throughout, and his seven-piece band (including two horns) is tight but loose and ragged enough to grind through rockers with garage band enthusiasm. "Rebecca, Rebecca," the album's slow blues showcase, proves how comfortable McClinton is with his band and being on-stage. This is clearly his forte, and even though he's released some terrific, if not quite classic, studio albums, this is the best way to get an overall dose of his talents. The career-spanning set list isn't a greatest-hits collection, but that just makes it more enjoyable as the singer throws in a few curve balls. His much-lauded harmonica skills are also on display during a knockout version of "I Want to Thank You Baby," but it's on the following eight-minute version of "I Want to Love You" where he and the band stretch out. The only disappointment is the relatively short playing time; a double CD should have been twice as long, and if just one tune were left off, this could have been released as a single disc. Otherwise, this is a nearly perfect document of Delbert McClinton, captured in his natural habitat with all the sweat, intensity, and frisky fun intact. Hal Horowitz