Whiskey Head Man

The Man Known as Sugar

This recording was produced in Chicago on December 12, 1940 with Tommy McClennan (vocal and guitar).

Tommy McClennan who was originally from Durant, Mississippi made his way to Chicago sometime during the late 30’s, making a series of recordings for Bluebird Records from 1939 through 1942. He regularly performed with his friend Robert Petway and can be heard shouting in the background on Petway’s 1942 recording “Boogie Woogie Woman”. McClennan made an immediate impact in 1940 with his recordings “Shake ‘Em on Down”, “Bottle It Up and Go”, “Whiskey Head Woman” and “New Highway No.51”.

He left a powerful legacy that included “Bottle It Up and Go,” “Cross Cut Saw Blues” later covered by Albert King, “My baby’s gone” (covered and adapted by Moon Mullican), “Deep Blue Sea Blues” (aka “Catfish Blues”), and others whose lasting power has been evidenced through the repertoires and re-recordings of other artists.

In John Fahey’s “Screaming and Hollerin’ the Blues” there is an interview conducted with Booker Miller, who was a contemporary of Charlie Patton, he makes mention of someone who is most likely Tommy McClennan, though he does 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.”

“He had a different style of playing a guitar” Big Bill Broonzy remarked drily. “You just make the chords and change when you feel like changing”

Although nothing is known of what happened to Petway, Tommy McClennan was occasionally seen in Chicago with Elmore James and Little Walter, two other artists from the Delta. McClennan is reported to have died from alcoholism in poverty in Chicago, Illinois, in 1962.

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