Tommy McClennan
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Tommy McClennan (January 4, 1905[1] – May 9, 1961) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist.[2]
Life and career
McClennan was born in Durant, Mississippi, and grew up in the town. He played and sang blues in a rough, energetic style.
He made a series of recordings for Bluebird Records from 1939[3] through 1942. He regularly played with his friend Robert Petway.[4] His voice is heard in the background on Petway's recording of "Boogie Woogie Woman" (1942).[5] McClennan's singles in this period included "Bottle It Up and Go", "New Highway No. 51", "Shake 'Em on Down", and "Whiskey Head Woman".[5]
Several of his songs have been covered by other musicians, including "Cross Cut Saw Blues" (covered by Albert King) and "My Baby's Gone" (Moon Mullican).[6] McClennan's "I'm a Guitar King" was included in the 1959 collection The Country Blues, issued by Folkways Records.
McClennan died of bronchopneumonia in Chicago, Illinois, on May 9, 1961.[1][7]
Citation
"He had a different style of playing a guitar", Big Bill Broonzy said. "You just make the chords and change when you feel like changing"[5]
John Fahey's "Screaming and Hollerin' the Blues" contains an interview with Booker Miller, a contemporary of Charlie Patton's, in which Miller mentioned someone who is most likely Tommy McClennan, though Miller did not know his name: "... and I saw another fella he put some records out, they (him and Willie Brown) be together, but he be by himself when I see him, they called him "Sugar"... I ain't never known him as nothing but Sugar, he put out a record called Bottle Up and Go... I sold him my guitar."
Bob Dylan covered Tommy McClennan's track, "Highway 51" (which was written by Curtis Jones), on his self-titled debut album in 1962.[8]
See also
References
External links
- Tommy McClennan on yazoo.org - with photograph of McClennan
- Article on cascadeblues.com
- Illustrated Tommy McClennan discography
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- ↑ [1] Template:Webarchive
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- 1905 births
- 1961 deaths
- Delta blues musicians
- Country blues musicians
- American blues singers
- American blues guitarists
- American male guitarists
- Blues musicians from Mississippi
- Bluebird Records artists
- People from Yazoo City, Mississippi
- 20th-century American guitarists
- Guitarists from Mississippi
- People from Durant, Mississippi
- African-American guitarists
- 20th-century African-American male singers
- 20th-century American male singers
- 20th-century American singers