McClinton: Deep in His Heart Is Texas : Pop music: The sound and tenacity he got from the Lone Star State have seen him through lean but artistically rewarding times. He’ll play the Coach House tonight.

Whatever it is you need just come to Texas

And I’ll bet my boots you will agree

There’s a little bit of everything in Texas

And a whole lot of Texas in me.

“There’s a Little Bit of Everything in Texas” --Ernest Tubb *

Ernest Tubb’s territorial classic would make an appropriate theme song for Delbert McClinton.

The veteran singer/harpist, who appears tonight at the Coach House, has made a career of blending Lone Star State blues, rock and R & B traditions into a rich and tasty blend.

Like most Texans, McClinton is convinced that his home state has a sound and spirit that’s different from the rest of the country.

“Texas has always been an important place musically, and I’m happy to say that it still is,” McClinton said in a recent phone interview. “Texas is one of the few places where you can still hear regional music. A lot of places, it’s getting so homogenized that you can’t tell where the roots come from. But Texas has everything from Ornette Coleman to Lyle Lovett to the Fabulous Thunderbirds. To me, it’s a good mix.”

McClinton’s Texas toughness and tenacity have served him well throughout a long and often frustrating career that began in the late ‘50s and finally saw him through to winning a Grammy last year, for his duet with Bonnie Raitt on “Good Man, Good Woman.”

Through the lean times--he spent years without a record deal or recognition--McClinton, 53, kept touring, his belief in his music and the applause of an audience as his rewards. According to McClinton, he’s been driven to perform since his childhood days in Fort Worth.

“As a kid, I was always singing,” he said. “My brother had a friend who was a musician, and I thought, ‘By God, I wanna do that too.’ There never really was choice. It always seemed I was going that way, and I always was.

“I started out in the ‘50s doing all that early rock ‘n’ roll stuff--Elvis, Carl Perkins, Big Joe Turner and all the doo-wop things--and then, I started getting turned on to all the blues guys. Through the years, I just kind of mixed it all together. I enjoy the kind of music I do; it’s the roots I grew up on.”

An old-school working musician, McClinton has lost count of how many records he’s released since his 1960 recording debut as Mac Clinton, but figures he’s spent a least 25 years of his life on the road. He’s watched the music business change drastically over time from mostly small, regionally based companies.

“I guess the biggest change is that back when I was starting out, and even up through the ‘60s, it was a time when everyone in the world wasn’t in the music business,” he said.

“Today, the competition is astronomical, and it’s not all good competition. Everybody plays, everybody’s putting out a record. A guy starts out, and within six months, he’s a multimillionaire. Not to mention any names, but you go out and shoot somebody, and you sell a million records.

“But man, I’d hate to be one of the guys that don’t make it that way. If you’re starting out, you’ve got to pay to play in some places--that’s tough, man, if you don’t have any money to start with. Everything seems backward.”

McClinton’s had more than his share of problems with record companies over the years, some due to bum luck, others to his steadfast refusal to alter his sound with the times. According to McClinton, every label he was on between 1972 through 1981 went out of business while he was on the roster, but he remains proud of his track record and reliably rootsy style.

“I don’t let (record company people) in when I’m recording,” he said. “I don’t know if I exude a feeling of ‘I don’t want you here’ while I’m working, or if they’re just polite enough not to come in on their own. But I sure don’t invite ‘em, and there’s been times I’ve had to say, ‘I’d rather you didn’t stop by.’ So far, I’ve always at least had the freedom to go in and do what I want to do. I take total responsibility for every album I’ve made.”

McClinton’s career and visibility were given a swift kick last year with the release of “Never Been Rocked Enough” on Curb Records, a feisty R & B outing featuring his Grammy-winning duet with Raitt. More recently, Curb put out an album of outtakes, unfinished session cuts, duets and soundtrack work.

He said that album was released against his wishes but that he preferred to focus on the positive things.

“When you win a Grammy, it tends to validate you to people who otherwise might not know who you are,” he said. “I’ll take that. Things have gotten a lot better. We’re out there working, and I’ve got a legion of fans that are very supportive, so my life is good as far as all that goes. You learn to take the good with the bad.”

* Delbert McClinton appears at 8 tonight at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. $19.50. (714) 496-8930.