ALBERT LEE & STEVE MORSE ~ COUNTRY BOY 

You know your pretty fantastic when Steve Morse is your rhythm player!

Albert Lee is officially added to the list of alien players sent to earth to lower my guitar self-esteem

The thing that amazes me about Albert Lee is that not only does he play fast but he does it so cleanly hitting every note.

Eric Clapton considers Albert Lee to be one of the ten best electric guitar players in the history of the instrument. Deserved.

Steve and Albert go back as far as this song was written and are very close friends, so Steve would never step on one of Albert's songs. Steve's signature guitar is capable of sounding like the Telecaster that Albert is playing, so why go there? For those who think Steve is "out of his depth" with this song, type in Dixie Dregs "The Bash", or "Pride of the Farm" to get an idea of Morse covering that genre. There is a reason why Steve is one of only 3 guitarists to ever to win the "Overall Best Guitarist of the Year" 5 years in a row, retiring him from competition (Rock, Jazz, Blues, Bluegrass, Country, Fusion, Classical). A Dregs or SMB concert is a roller coaster of genres. John Petrucci went to a Dregs concert when he was an up and coming guitarist (at the age of 18) and afterwards he said he realized he had a whole new level to achieve and names Morse as his main influence. The song he said that blew him away was "The Bash". John still has all of Steve's instructional manuals and tapes he bought afterward as well as the 8 x 10 that Steve autographed at that show when John was introduced to him. Beside his autographed, Steve wrote "Practice". The top guitarists never "compete" against each other when sharing the stage (which is why a G 3 tour works), because they are comfortable with their own body of work. Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, etc. are all good friends and site each other as influences. Morse often works with Vai at one of his Academies and has done G3 tours with most I've listed.

Listen to Steve Morse play the live version of The Bash with The Dregs back in the 70s. He can play country licks as fast and as clean as anybody when he wants to.

I am a big Steve Morse fan, but Albert Lee is still the master of this genre -what an impeccable clean sound!

One the highlights of 50 years of seeing the best of a generation perform was seeing Albert play COUNTRY BOY in a small club in LA in the 90's. About 50 or 60 people in the place. Then Emmy Lou dropped in and sang 3 songs. The whole show was amazing .What a night!

I love Albert Lee. I love Steve Morse. I thank the universe that these dudes exist.

❤❤and there’s Steve Morse❤mostly comping for Albert so humble AND GREAT

Man that Albert Lee is an incredible talent; both playing and singing!

Unbelievable! It takes a whole lotta guitar playing to put Steve Morse in the shade. Albert Lee must have been a big influence for him.

damn, he's 70 and still shred like monster

Albert is one of the best ever. Spent most of his career flying under the radar. Such a humble, witty and talented man.

Holy shit, I can't believe I'm just now seeing Albert Lee's influence on Steve Morse so clearly. What an incredible master of the instrument, and still killing it ten years ago. I've been worshipping SM for forty years now, but I gotta say, I much prefer Albert's tone and his playing is immaculate. He won that guitqr duel by a longshot, although I know SM has been battling wrist issues for years.

Tearing it up at 70, awesome

Albert Lee's playing is pure fire! never tire of hearing this great song. LOVE the changes

70 years old, and he still can "rock" :-)

This guy is my guitar hero. Bass player is solid as a rock!

I saw Albert play live a few months back in a tiny venue in Birnam, Perthshire. I was in the front row within touching distance and could see and hear what he was doing. Country Boy was his encore and he absolutely ripped it. I never thought I would see another guitarist, with the possible exception of Tommy Emmanuel, who could play that style at that speed and with that clarity. This was my first view of Steve Morse and it will not be the last. What a duo!

Met Albert Lee at a venue he played in upstate NY probably 4 years ago now. Incredibly humble man considering the level of talent he has.

The unmistakable sound of Steve Morse no legato flat out alternate picking. This song turned me in to an Albert Lee fan, impeccably clean picking.

That so smooth amazing playing!!

IMO Albert is the best chicken picker to ever do it.

Albert Lee is so amazing; his improv is the most exciting of anyone I've ever heard; plays so well even at 70+

I wasn't aware that Big Poppa Ball was this good on the bass...my respect for EBMM just skyrocketed!

Saw Albert a month ago, he is a genius and the nicest bloke alive !

Two legends having fun playing a little chicken pickin song, gotta love it

America had glen cambell ,we got Albert Lee.

Albert Lee is amazing😲😲😲🔥🔥😀😀😀🎵🎶🎸🎸

I had forgotten that Albert was once in Head, Hands, and Feet. And that Steve was once in the Dixie Dregs - and a Delta pilot!

This is a celebration and a fun time had by a bunch of friends . Enjoy it for what it is . Tone nerds your negative comments are self serving at best .

Yea I have been a fan of Morse since the late 70's. I have been privileged to see him many times. I am a player myself and know what kind of time dedication it takes to retain you physical ability to play guitar. I have to say as I get older I find it more difficult to play the more technical passages i used to play with ease. But with age and musically maturity I would hope what I cant do with speed and dexterity I make up for in passion and note selection. Steve's musical mind is nothing short of genius! Unfortunately I think I read somewhere that skate boarding with his son and breaking a wrist may be part of the difference in his right hand technique you see here, but i'm not positive. I will continue to buy his music and watch his concerts because he is such a wonderful, humble artist that always gives back to the guitar community. He has influenced my playing and his music still brings me much joy.

There is a great deal of genuine mutual admiration between Albert and Steve, who each have their own distinctive style. Albert Played on Steve's tip of the hat track "General Lee" over 3 decades ago.

Actually, writing credit is given to 3 members of his band while Ricky Skaggs' recording brought it to the publics attention with his stellar bluegrass arrangement.

After reading all the comments about Steve's tone, I'd like to point out something others may not have considered: He probably opted for that tone to provide some contrast.

Sure takes me back. I used to work for Ernie Ball back in the mid 80's to mid 90's. They would throw a xmas party for all the employees every year. Naturally there was live entertainment. Used to see the guys play all the time. It was great...

I do not know why people are stunned by Morse's high gain tone on this song. He often uses high gain for country songs. It's part of his signature sound. Sometimes he starts a country solo clean and shifts to high gain in the solo such as in the more recent live version of The Bash or going way back to Rocky Top. In fact, in the only two Steve Morse Band tracks I know of in which he has Albert Lee as a guest player, Morse used high gain in each of his solos, contrasting Lee's clean tone. Actually here, he is only using high gain for the solos in this song. The rest of his work in the song is clean tone. As far as Morse being sloppy, get real. And watch the rest of the videos for other songs in this concert if you want to hear his variety of playing. Morse is still a devastating player.

Pure brilliance.

Brings out the hillbilly in all of us. Long live Jeff Beck

I've feeling Albert can play any style if allowed...amazing fast. Perfect pairing is these two since both mine the same area of progressive chicken picking

Albert is not only a superb player. At 3:40 he gives an example of his astonishing sound engineer skills...

How can 44 people not like this. Albert is one of the greatest players in the world.

Wow. Steve surprised me! He more than held his own.

Now, that's what I call pickin' 'n' grinnin'.

Albert Lee is one of the very few guitarists that actually frighten me. He is just so...BRILLIANT!

And the band can't forget about the band🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

damn...Albert Lee is a magician in that kind of style. Steve Morse is great too, but somehow Lee is more variable IMHO 🙊

wow Morse being a different style is handling very very good. We all know about Albert. But hats off too Morse also. Not an easy job here, in fact I re ally loved his melodies here...

Absolutely amazing! I was perusing RU-vid searching for songs I will need to cover in an upcoming show and caught this link out of the corner of my eye. I thought "I don't have time to check it out" then I just felt compelled to click on it anyway and was glad I did! What an amazing performance!

The speed of Albert Lee…its incredible!!!

I just loved Albert Lee since I first time saw him on TV. He also played double there with James Burton backing Emmylou Harris. Think about it, the two greatest chickem pickers side by side. They both put the guitar on theirs backs and picked the living daylight out of it. Later both played with Jerry Lee Lewis, that's heaven. And here with Steve Morse. Albert Lee, that's one country boy having done the greatest combos.

Steve Morse can play,but I’ll take Albert Lee’s country twang pickin’ any day.Pure musical talent.

I love Albert Lee! Great stuff! Just feel it!

Fantastic guitar playing! Love it!

My God - two just amazing guitarists. Just incredible.

Albert's still gettin' it done.

They all sound great!

Magnificent combo-excellent!

Great job Steve and Albert Lee 🎉🎉🎉❤

Truly. as a fan of both, Lee and Morse, I was a bit surprised with Steve's contribution here. I really expected him to deliver his own unique bluegrass trademark to "battle" Al's. For some reason he didn 't look quite comfortable on stage. You can probably tell from his face. His tone was also quite out of place. In any case, oh boy..Steve's got unlimited credit with me.

Thumbs up from me ! Amazing performance from two guitar wizards !

So , glad to see both of these unique southern styles play together on the same stage , both seem to return a compliment to each other !

Two of my all time heros! Keep on rocking!

love Albert, but i sure miss his killer old no-chorus TELE tone. regardless, it's SO difficult playing that endless stream of fluid hot rod country licks. he and SM are amazing together. for all the skilled bedroom/online players, it's one thing to rip sitting in a controlled environment with 20 takes to get it perfect; it's another thing entirely to kill it live onstage. cheers!

Saw him play this in another vid in the 70s with a mop of black hair. Gone gray now but still not lost any speed. My fav guitarist

Mind blowingly awesome!

Amazing! Both amazing.

To all saying Morse's not familiar with the music here, have you heard 'The Bash' already?

Insane ability from Albert Lee & Steve Morse!!!

Holy smokes! What a great live version of this song. These guys' fingers are on fire!! Wow, wow, wow!!!

What an awesome jam👍🏻😀

This is possibly the best spent seven minutes of my life.

Albert Lee Rules! A country boy from England?

Just frickin love it! Albert is the king... saw him twice - one of my inspirations for becoming a musician.... Wonderful!!!!!

I'm watching this again, and I'm still just as impressed as last time!

Yeee Haaa! Now that is what I call fun. Wish I could play half as well as either one of these guys! I thought Mr Morse acquitted himself pretty well here and pretty sure Mr Lee could do more than a passable job shredding. Two of the best guitar players around. Doesn't hurt that both seem like pretty decent and humble guys.

Steve's a great guy. I met him at Bert's in Atlanta a few times in the 70s and just couldn't believe his talent then. He let me play the Frankentele and that was one weird setup, but the guy made it work.

2 of the best pickers in the business.

Just an absolute masterclasss in picking. Love this video

a lot of carping here. come on guys. steve and albert! tell me you didn't learn at least one thing from this clip!!! And hats off to the team at Ernie Ball - hey Dudley!

Albert Lee. My hero. Wow. Gypsy soul, nice man, tremendous talent, gigging all over the world with all kinds of musicians. 'Can't wait to see him again (with Peter Asher) in July.

This is so kickass that I'm at a loss for words.

He never ceases to amaze me.

So incredibly clean!!! Fast?! Good grief! Albert sure comes up with very intricate, long, well developed solos! Morse? Unbelievable !! Togather? Ain't no words for it!!!

both guitarists are great beyond generation

Danny Gatton is maybe the only guy who's ability to rockabilly shred I would put over Albert. Super skilled

albert lee is one of the greatest country style pickers of all time and may have invented the double stop technique for all country pickers too follow , happy birthday too , also hats off too a brit , ray flacke too .

What I love about this performance is that you can hear there is no contest between Steve and Albert. They are just having fun.

Love the tone Albert is getting.

two awesome legends 🤘

Just Stellar Stuff here! wow....

I've seen Albert many times and never tire of hearing this. He always makes it sound fresh.

both players are excellent here but i guess haters gotta hate

I was privileged to see Albert Lee live in a samll Pub many years ago in Marburg, Germany. Fantastic!!

2 great guitar players...awsome!

Carvin Steve Vai Signature ... what a great Amp!

Looks over..... Albert: "Take it Steve" Steve: "Naaah, I'm good"

Great show!

Excellent performance..beautiful song..* * * * *Brilliant!