Delbert McClinton [ tickets ] will release "Nothing Personal" (New West), his first studio album in three years, on Tuesday (3/6). The record pairs McClinton with longtime co-producer and songwriting partner Gary Nicholson, and features 13 new original songs that run the gamut from rockabilly to swamp funk to low-down blues. The lyrical grit grabs from the first few bars of "Livin' It Down": "My ship came in and she sunk it, I was the toast of the town and she drunk it."

After 40 years as a performer--and a 1991 Grammy for "Good Man, Good Woman" with Bonnie Raitt--McClinton still tours endlessly, and even works during his Caribbean vacations; every year, he organizes the annual Delbert McClinton & Friends Sandy Beaches Cruise, which in the past has featured the likes of Michael McDonald, Marcia Ball, Junior Brown and Tommy Castro.

LiveDaily correspondent Don Zulaica spoke with McClinton about the album, Caribbean cruises, and that teaching-Lennon-harmonica thing.

LiveDaily: I read that this was the first album you "spent more than five days recording."

Delbert McClinton: That's a little bit misleading. Five days was the period of time I usually had to cut tracks for an album, being signed to a record company that had all the controls. In other words, they'd say, "We've got the studio booked for the next five days. Go in and do your tracks." And in the five days, if you don't like something, it's too bad. That's just what you've got. I had the leisure to do what I wanted to do with "Nothing Personal."

How long did you take to put it together?

I did it over a period of about ten and a half months.

Where did you record it?

I recorded about half of it in L.A., and half in Nashville.

What inspired the song "Livin' It Down?"

That's a combination of three writers: me, Benmont Tench and Gary Nicholson. We got to talking about scenarios that we were familiar with, and started combining them. When people ask, I say that it was written about everybody. ... Does it apply to you? Can you think of anybody that it doesn't apply to? If they say it doesn't, they're a liar.

"Baggage Claim" is pretty funky, and very live.

Well, it was. We recorded it with one mike in the middle of the room. I wrote that song by myself, just sitting around playing that funky groove, and it just started coming out. Before I knew it, I had it written. It's one of those songs that wrote itself. Those are the best kinds.

You touch upon so many different styles. Do you have a strict game plan going into recording an album?

I had all the songs written before we were ready to record. But you know, I wanted to make a record for me. I was financing the record, and it was a whole different venture for me. So I didn't listen to anybody.

You know, you always get advice if you stand still for it. And I thought, "Well, hell, I've had enough advice, I think I'll do what I want to do."

When's the last time you did a record like this, independently?

This is really the first time I've done a project on my own, and I don't know why ... I'll never do it any other way.

What's in the future for you in terms of touring?

I tour all the time, year-round.

Like with this cruise you're doing, Sandy Beaches?

Yeah, I've been hosting a cruise for the last seven years. It's a magic week--one week in the Caribbean with about fourteen bands, the music never stops. We've got a return rate of about 70%. In fact, when we finished the last cruise in January, we're already one-third sold out for next year.

Talk about a paid vacation.

I know, it's great. But it took about three years before it started paying off. We've pretty much just made back the money that we put into it, but this next year might be the first where we actually make a profit.

You're probably getting sick of this, but what's this whole teaching-Lennon-the-harmonica story? This was back in ...

1962. I played harmonica on "Hey Baby" by Bruce Chanell, which was a big worldwide hit. And when Bruce got booked to play the British Isles for six weeks, he said, "We've got to have the harmonica," so I got to go. And the Beatles were the opening act on a few of the shows we did, so we hung out during that time.

So John [Lennon] would be all, "Show me something," that kind of thing. I never saw him again, but now it's chiseled in stone that I taught him harmonica. [laughs]

What was he like?

You've got to remember, this is before they changed the world. We were all on pretty even ground at that time ... I was 22 years old. We were a real bunch of young guys, as far as I was concerned, and we were all going to change the world, you know? They were great.

I remember the first night we heard them over there. This girl who had been following Bruce around England came up to the dressing room and said, "You all need to hear this band. They just came back from Hamburg, they're the hottest group in the north of England." We heard a lot of great music over there at that time, because [England] was just about to explode, you know? I didn't really see it [that way], I just saw it as, "Boy, this is a hell of a lot better than Texas. There's a lot more going on here." And before you really had time to think about it, it was taking over the world. It was a great time.

Who of the younger musicians out there interest you currently?

I think Johnny Lang is a major talent. I think he's very real. A 2,000 year-old voice. He's not supported by 25 other singers and 30 dancers and the magic record machine.

But that's where I come from: music where you say "do it," and they can do it. Without having three semis come in and set up a bunch of stuff, two or three days of make-up and rehearsals--to me, that's not really playing live music. But I know I'm a dinosaur living in an age where not a lot of that [kind of music] happens. Some of it does, but too much of it these days has got nothing to do with music.

But I don't like to talk about it. It's hard to talk about anything without either sounding like you're slamming somebody or praising yourself. So I'm only really truly interested in doing what I can do, the best I can do it.