With 50-plus years on the road under his belt, the British-born Albert Lee has a U.S. band, a devoted audience from ‘way back’ and plans for another studio album. The Local Spins interview.
Feeling Like He’s 35: Albert Lee is touring the Midwest with his own U.S. band.
THE ARTIST: Albert Lee
THE MUSIC: Country, rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll
WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM: 8 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday at Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake (Saturday show is sold out; Sunday tickets available online here); Lee also performs Friday at Acorn Theater in Three Oaks and Feb. 15 at The Ark in Ann Arbor
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Albert Lee hasn’t achieved the sort of fame and superstar status accorded Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Bill Wyman, The Everly Brothers and other icons with whom he’s played. But at 72, he’s still looking forward to “the next big band to join” while enjoying resurgence as a touring solo act.
“I really think I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve played with a lot of my heroes and I’ve gone from one really good band to another. It’s been a good long ride, really,” the British-born, Grammy Award-winning guitarist said in an interview with Local Spins as he prepared to embark on a Midwest tour which stops Saturday and Sunday at Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake.
Crazy About American Records: Lee took up a guitar as a teen and the rest is history.
“I’d like to be better off and better known than I am. It would make life easier. But that’s the way it is, and I’ve come to terms with it. I’m not going to be a major star at 72, and there is an audience out there. In the last couple of years, I’ve started to tour under my own name and I’ve had a great response. People show up with old albums of mine. Everywhere I go, there are people who know me from way back.”
Suffice to say, Lee’s “way back” covers some impressive territory – from touring Great Britain as a teenager in 1960 with British rock singer Dickie Pride to jamming with Jimmy Page and being a member of the group Heads Hands & Feet to crossing the pond to perform and record with the likes of Joe Cocker, The Crickets, Clapton, Harris, Everly Brothers, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs and others.
Along the way, he’s been hailed as “Mr. Telecaster” for his “lightning speed” fingerstyle and picking prowess, not to mention winning “best country guitarist” honors from Guitar Player magazine five years in a row.
Lee, who’s made his home in California for nearly four decades, said he loved the United States “from the first moment” that he arrived on tour in 1970, getting the opportunity to watch and play with his heroes at places such as The Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles.
‘CRAZY ABOUT AMERICAN RECORDS’ AND LOVING HIS OWN U.S. BAND
“We were all just crazy about American records right from the beginning,” said Lee, whose first record purchase as a kid was Buddy Holly’s “The ‘Chirping’ Crickets,” a band he’d later join – even playing a Winter Dance Party concert last weekend to commemorate the 1959 tour that resulted in Holly’s death in a plane crash.
“I’d buy all these records and I was a big Buddy Holly fan and bought all of his records and for a time I was buying all the Gene Vincent records.”
In addition to the influence of Vincent’s guitarist, Cliff Gallup, Lee found himself attracted to American country and rockabilly music, something that would serve him well in future years as an in-demand guitarist tapped by Rosanne Cash, Dolly Parton, Carlene Carter, Brad Paisley, Rodney Crowell and many more.
He’s Played With His Heroes: Albert Lee
After maintaining “an English band” for decades to tour Europe several months a year — playing regularly with Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings — Lee is giving that a break to stay closer to his family and tour with his own U.S. group: John “J.T.” Thomas on keyboards, Will MacGregor on bass and Jason Smith on drums.
“There are four of us and I like the lineup. This way, I can do a few local gigs, or in the case of this current tour, I can go away for just over two weeks and then be home again. It doesn’t seem like I’m away all the time,” said Lee, who also hopes to record a new solo studio album soon as a follow-up to 2014’s “Highwayman.”
“I used to dread it getting on a plane and heading to England and knowing I wouldn’t be home for three months. As much as I enjoyed being there, it felt like a jail sentence in a way.”
As for his February tour of the Midwest – with stops in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri – Lee said fans can expect a diverse night of music.
“It’s a mixture, really. People are surprised when they come to the show, especially women, because they come along with their guitar-playing husbands to hear a guy playing guitar,” Lee said, noting he also plays piano during the concerts. “It really is a mixture of material that I do. It’s country and rock ‘n’ roll, and I’m a big fan of Jimmy Webb, so I do piano ballads.”
And while Lee said he “used to love going out with Eric (Clapton) and the Everly Brothers” and other artists, he’s pleased to have his own band to take on the road.
“I still feel like I’m 35, but for someone to hire a 72-year-old for a band, they might have second thoughts,” he quipped. “I’ve spent 50 odd years on the road. And living in the states for almost 40 years, I finally put a U.S. band together.”
Get details and tickets for Lee’s Sunday show at Seven Steps Up online at pindropconcerts.com.
VIDEO: Albert Lee, “Country Boy”
Copyright 2016, Spins on Music LLC
