Delaney & Bonnie Essentials

Keeping their Mississippi and Illinois roots rustic in L.A. while weathering an impromptu hippie marriage that lasted approximately as long as their band did, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett established a down-home music blueprint from 1967 to 1972. Starting at Stax Records, then bouncing label to label, their soulful hymns of road, love, and praise took in rock, country, blues, and especially the church-born call-and-response of gospel—as Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Gram Parsons, Duane and Gregg Allman, and more helped carry it all higher.