Albert Lee, The Ultimate Road Warrior Returns to The Strand Saturday Night, January 15th
Albert Lee makes his fourth appearance at The Strand Theater in Hudson Falls Saturday night. Startlingly enigmatic, he is a combination of technical prowess and an ability to take a set in any direction based on his emotions and an almost telepathic connection with his audience. He obviously loves The Strand. His second concert there came across as a homecoming. And his work with Peter Asher and Company last July buried everyone else on the stage including Asher, Kate Taylor, and Leland Sklar.
Now 77 years old, Albert is the consummate road warrior. His Strand date is his 13th so far this year including a stop at New York City’s premier showcase club The Iridium a week after he plays Hudson Falls. He left home at 16 in 1960 and never looked back. His enormous creativity has touched the muse of artists as diverse as Clapton, Elvis Presley’s guitarists James Burton and Scotty Moore, country legends Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris, Cindy Cashdollar and scores more. He spent 24 years on the road with the Everly Brothers and 13 with Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.
In my review of his first Strand appearance in 2019, I called him “a walking jukebox, singing and playing his way through the majority of recorded American music history. He did rockabilly, Clapton, Skaggs, Buddy Holly, Rodney Crowell, and his own stuff. He was a time machine who took dates and shuffled them like pieces of the puzzle and splayed them out at random. Biggest surprise? He plays piano, too, and sings like Jimmy Webb.”
He is unique among British rock guitarists in his mastery of American country music, having won a Grammy in 2002 for his contribution on ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” He wrote “Country Boy,” a top-10 country hit for Ricky Skaggs in 1982. On that recording, Skaggs’ use of traditional country guitar on a mainstream country hit changed the way the industry looked at the genre.
Skaggs plays on Albert’s version of the song that appeared on his first single album Hiding. “That was the second or third time I recorded that song,” Lee told me in 2019. “I first did it with Head Hands and Feet in 1970, and then when I got a deal with A&M in the mid-70s, I cut it again. That one wasn’t released. Then, when I re-instigated my deal with A&M and got more money to go back in the studio, and I did it again with our band, and Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs, and that’s the version that’s one that Hiding album.
“(Ricky Skaggs) loved it all, really. I mean he’d come from the bluegrass background and, after playing with Emmylou Harris, he (was up) for playing more electric country, and I think he will probably give me credit for getting him to play the Telecaster for a short while in his band, and same goes for Vince Gill, you know. Vince wasn’t really a Tele player until we got there.
“The version of “Country Boy” by Heads Hands and Feet got played on the radio a lot, so people got to know me here (in the states), and then when I moved to L.A. in ’73,’74, I was playing local bars with Vince Gill. He was quite young then, and I think he will readily admit that I was an influence at that time. Then Ricky and I were in the Hot Band (with Emmylou Harris) for a short while together, and I got to play on a few records of his around that time.”
Eric Clapton gave Albert Lee a guitar he played when he was in Cream, one of more than 40 guitars Albert Lee owns – he’s lost count. They include Don Everly’s Gibson J200 and the guitar Elvis Presley played in “King Creole,” G. I. Blues” and “Loving You.”
I’ve seen several great acts at The Strand including Marton Barre and Walter Trout, but Albert Lee tops them all. A must-see show!
Albert Lee Belated Birthday Bash, The Strand Theater, Saturday, January 15th, 7:30 p.m., 210 Main St., Hudson Falls. Tickets $35 Phone:518-832-3484.
Tickets are available at the Strand Box Office; cash or check only. Tickets can also be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets. Per New York Gov. Hochul’s recent mandate, the theater is requiring all attendees and staff members to wear masks.
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