Search - Tommy Mcclennan :: Bluebird Recordings 1939-42

Among the country bluesmen performing in the fields and roadhouses during the halcyon days of American music before World War II, there were singers, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leroy Carr, and there were shouters, such as Charley Patton, Willie Brown and small, rough-voiced Tommy McClennan. Bluebird, the last of the prewar recording companies to seek Mississippi artists, signed Yazoo City's McClennan on a tip from their popular songster, Big Bill Broonzy. Although he often played with fellow shouter Robert Petway in live performance, when put inside a studio, McClennan roared, slammed his guitar, and shouted his songs out with utter fury or, just as often, with hilarity, until his records became the last bestsellers of the unforgettable Delta blues epoch. In this rich trove of raw soulfulness, highly recommended are "You Can Mistreat Me Here," "Brown Skin Girl," "New Highway," and "It's Hard to Be Lonesome." --Alan Greenberg