Albert Lee is just awesome. Humble, sweet, ridiculously good guitarist as well as pianist and singer. There aren't enough superlatives to describe my thoughts on him. Genius.
Albert would never run down a fellow guitarist ,and he is a great fan of Burton.Known Albert since 59 .Never heard him say a bad word about anyone come to that.
What a great musician and fellow human. I still remember him igniting The Hot Band and thinking " who the hell is this great guitar player? ". A class act if there was ever one. "Merci beaucoup!"
I once had the great pleasure of having dinner in a Chinese restaurant with Albert before he played a gig in Brighton with Hogan's Heroes. A person I worked with was a friend of his and knew I was a fan and arranged it for me. He is such a nice and humble guy but I was still a bit tongue tied. Probably asked some stupid questions but he put me at my ease and was happy to talk about his time with Clapton and the Everlys. Then he did a great show playing things like "Country Boy" and using a Tele with a 'B' bender for one number. Will always be a great memory although I very much doubt if he'd recall it. Nice man!
I can never get over how much this guy appears to have his feet firmly on the ground. He is neither needlessly modest (because he's a brilliant guitar player and for him to claim otherwise would just be writing off his whole career), nor does he boast. -- he just tells the stories. Many thanks for posting this, and I wish I had been there to see him play.
My wife and I met Albert at the Namm show in Calif. a few years back. We used to sell his teaching videos in our Music store in Ohio He was a Classey fellow that's for sure and a great Player.
If you get the opportunity to see Albert play in a club setting, don't pass up the chance. Stunning musician and very approachable considering he's one of the best guitarists on the planet. His 2nd album simply titled ALBERT LEE (Polydor 1982) is an absolute gem. Met him and chatted a couple of times. A fine bloke he is.......
I had a chance to meet Albert some years ago when he was sitting in with a bar band in the SFV. Just as others have stated, he was one of the nicest and most humble people you’d ever hope to meet. I nearly choked when he asked if I play guitar - there’s no way I could call myself a guitar player next to such an immense talent as his. Later that evening I was talking with the band’s steel guitarist and found out that all the guys in the band were so in awe of his presence that they could barely play. I know the feeling...
I love listening to Albert's stories. I did not know anything about him when I saw him live about three years ago at a music festival. But to me he was the best act at the festival.
I met him backstage where he shook my hand saying "Hi - I'm Albert". All I could come up with was - "Um - I know" whereupon my pal Lee Agnew drummer with Nazareth gently moved me aside and introduced himself as he, unlike me, hadn't suddenly lost the power of speech.
Albert Lee... one if the finest - if not THE finest country guitar player on the planet. I'm wondering if he's ever had a chance to play with Marty Stuart and Kenny Vaughan. Both equally excellent.
Albert always does this talk at his guitar clinics between demonstrations of the Ernie Ball guitars he plays. I heard him in Sarasota FL, at Thoroughbred Guitars some years ago. So good to see him and Eric together again at the Crossroads festivals where Albert and Vince Gill do the country sets.
The first time I saw Albert play was in1967 when he was guitarist with Chris Farlowe's Thunderbirds. Two things impressed me, obviously his incredible guitar technique. Secondly he was wearing an amazing buckskin fringed jacket which looked so damn cool. An awesome player fifty years ago and still is to this day.
After a gig with the Heroes I asked him a handfull questions about who he played with and stuff. He recommended me his biography "Country Boy" (40 euros) to get all the answers on detail. And he wasn't lying. This book reads like a who is who of music history with hundreds of names in it. Even surprising ones like Joe Cocker and Jimmy Page.
I think this Question & Answer session with Albert was recorded on 12th September 2015 at the London Acoustic Show at Olympia, London. I've seen Albert twenty times, mainly through the gigs put on by Pete Feenstra across London. Two memorable gigs were the ones at the short-lived "Music Palace" in Crouch End, a converted Salvation Army Hall with Albert and Hogan's Heros playing right where the "Mercy Seat" would have been situated. Great Memories.
James not only played with Ricky, Elvis etc. but played on many Merle (The Hag) songs including "Working man Blues" listen carefully and you'll hear JB. Of course, Roy Nichols was the great lead player for The Hag. Interesting why JB played on the recording. Perhaps someone knows the reason. mosrite60
JB also played with the Monkees. I always wondered who was playing the "James Burton style" lead on Papa Gene's Blues. Turns out it was the man himself. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ylM9WMkissk.html
not surprised that Clapton felt the need to drink a lot----it was the Eighties, after all lol! Makes me wanna drink too much whenever I remember that decade and all those crappy synthpop bands and terrible-sounding recordings!
I quite liked a lot of them, even though they were putting guitars out of fashion. I hated Depech Mode, though, for their three-note riffs they called songs. Yee-uck!!! But I loved Thomas Dolby.
Glad to hear someone else feels the same!! I couldn’t have gotten thru the eighties professionally with all those cruddy synth bands/sounds, we’re it not for Albert, James, and one Stevie Ray Vaughan.
