Tommy McClennan (January 4, 1905
– May 9, 1961) was an American
Delta blues
Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...
singer and guitarist.
Life and career
McClennan was born in
Durant, Mississippi
Durant is a city near the central eastern border of Holmes County, Mississippi, United States, and Big Black River. The town was founded in 1858 as a station on the Mississippi Central Railroad, later part of the Illinois Central. Durant was nam ...
, and grew up in the town. He played and sang blues in a rough, energetic style.
He made a series of
recordings
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, r ...
for
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of kids' music, blues and jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. It was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced RCA Victor subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebird became known ...
from 1939
through 1942. He regularly played with his friend
Robert Petway
Robert Petway (born c. 1903, date of death unknown) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He recorded only 16 songs, but it has been said that he was an influence on many notable blues and rock musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Muddy Wat ...
. His voice is heard in the background on Petway's recording of "Boogie Woogie Woman" (1942).
McClennan's singles in this period included "
Bottle It Up and Go
"Bottle Up and Go" or "Bottle It Up and Go" is a song that is a standard of the blues.
Based on earlier songs, Delta bluesman Tommy McClennan recorded "Bottle It Up and Go" in 1939. The song has been interpreted and recorded by numerous artists, ...
", "New Highway No. 51", "
Shake 'Em on Down
"Shake 'Em On Down" is a Delta blues song by American musician Bukka White. He recorded it in Chicago in 1937 around the beginning of his incarceration at the infamous Parchman Prison Farm in Mississippi.
It was his first recording for produc ...
", and "Whiskey Head Woman".
Several of his songs have been
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
by other musicians, including "
Cross Cut Saw Blues" (covered by
Albert King
Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps b ...
) and "My Baby's Gone" (
Moon Mullican
Aubrey Wilson Mullican (March 29, 1909 – January 1, 1967), known professionally as Moon Mullican and nicknamed "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was associated with t ...
).
McClennan's "I'm a Guitar King" was included in the 1959 collection ''
The Country Blues
''The Country Blues'' is a seminal album released on Folkways Records in 1959, catalogue RF 1. Compiled from 78 recordings by Samuel Charters, it accompanied his book of the same name to provide examples of the music discussed. Both the book and ...
'', issued by
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
.
McClennan died of
bronchopneumonia
Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014
It is often ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, Illinois, on May 9, 1961.
Citation
"He had a different style of playing a guitar",
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...
said. "You just make the chords and change when you feel like changing"
's "Screaming and Hollerin' the Blues" contains an interview with Booker Miller, a contemporary of
Charlie Patton
Charley Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American musi ...
'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
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
covered Tommy McClennan's track, "Highway 51" (which was written by
Curtis Jones), on his self-titled debut album in 1962.
See also
*
List of Delta blues musicians
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from north to south between Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, and from east to west be ...
*
List of people from Mississippi
This list contains people who were born or lived in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Activists and advocates
* Ruby Bridges (born 1954), first African-American child to attend an all-white school in the South ( Tylertown)
* Will D. Campbell ...
References
External links
Tommy McClennan on yazoo.org - with photograph of McClennan*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClennan, Tommy
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