Lil McClintock (June 5, 1883 - 1930s or 1940) was an American

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

songster A "songster" is a wandering musician, usually but not always African-American, of the type which first appeared in the late 19th century in the southern United States. Songsters in American culture The songster tradition both pre-dated and co-exi ...

who accompanied himself on

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. Not much is known about McClintock's personal life, before or after he recorded four sides for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Interest in his recordings has been revived over the years, and they are prized by collectors. McClintock worked as a street performer in

Clinton, South Carolina Clinton is a city in Laurens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,490 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Greenville– Mauldin– Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clinton is the home of Presbyterian Col ...

, before he was tasked by manager of Cooper's Furniture Store, Burm Lessie, with accompanying another local musician, Blind Gussie Nesbitt, to record for Columbia Records. Unbeknownst to Lessie, he first encountered McClintock in 1923 when he wrote a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

about Delia Holmes, an individual who gained some media attention for being

murdered Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

in a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

in Georgia. McClintock was commonly referred to as "Lil"; it has been speculated that this was either an abbreviation of ''little'' or a reference to his tall, thin figure. After traveling by train, McClintock recorded two

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

numbers and two "

coon songs Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a stereotype of black people. They were popular in the United States and Australia from around 1880 to 1920, though the earliest such songs date from minstrel shows as far back as 1848, when they we ...

" on December 4, 1930. The latter two compositions are in a musical subgenre that is seldom republished, because of its blatantly racist representations of black people. First among the pair was "Don't Think I'm Santa Claus", which has a refrain derived from

minstrel shows The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...

and a rudimentary

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

-inspired accompaniment. Another song, "Furniture Man", played in a similar style, refers to black people as '' coons'' and advertises Cooper's Furniture Store in the process. In keeping with the minstrel-influenced qualities, McClintock addresses himself as "Mr. Brown" throughout the song. Both McClintock's and Nesbitt's recordings were issued in pressings of 750 copies in June 1931; McClintock fared better, as all four of his sides were released. Following the recording session, McClintock completely disappeared from any documentation. His records have become some of the rarest and sought after items among collectors, with any surviving issues being in pristine condition. In 1986, all of his recordings were issued on the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

''Atlanta Blues 1927–30: The Complete Recordings in Chronological Order of Julius Daniels and Lil McClintock'', which includes McClintock's material with that of the

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Julius Daniels Julius Daniels (November 20, 1901 – October 18, 1947) was an American Piedmont blues musician. His song "99 Year Blues" appeared on the box set '' Anthology of American Folk Music'' and has been covered by Jim Kweskin, Chris Smither, Johnny W ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McClintock, Lil Date of birth missing Date of death missing American country singer-songwriters American country guitarists American male guitarists American blues guitarists People from Clinton, South Carolina American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from South Carolina