World’s Greatest Guitar Player
One Sunday night Redwood City had the privilege to see one of the great Country/Rock-n-Roll guitar players Albert Lee.
Albert Lee has played with many musicians over his 53 years of touring across the world. Eric Clapton said…”Albert Lee is the greatest guitar player…”!
Club Fox ~ Redwood City, CA got to see why so many guitar players love to see Albert play his guitar. It was a great time and I have included one of the songs he did at Club Fox. See if you can figure out who wrote this song originally.
Enjoy.
Albert was born on December 21, 1943 in Shropshire before moving to and growing up in London. He was first introduced to music with the piano, taking lessons aged 9, before listening to the likes of Lonnie Donegan, Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent who inspired him to take up the guitar. Club Fox ~ Redwood City, CA
Playing as often as he could, borrowing friends’ guitars, Albert experienced one Christmas for Hofner President, his first very own guitar, and from there he never looked back. With the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and The Everly Brothers on the radio, Albert took to playing all over London in bars and church halls, whilst also working part-time at a hairdressers suppliers shop. Soon enough, regular gigs at the ’2 i’s Coffee Bar’ and ‘The Flamingo Club’ occupied Albert’s time, along with various gigs in Germany, a popular destination at the time for most bands including The Beatles.
In the early 60s, a time of wah-wah pedals and distortion with Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton fronting the music scene, Albert had his first taste of commercial success playing with Chris Farlowe and The Thunderbirds.
Albert soon found his favoured guitar of choice, the Fender Telecaster, whilst everyone else was playing Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster. Albert admitted to feeling like the odd man out, a notion he took one step further by discovering his love for country music while other musicians were covering artists like Johnny Cash.
The U.S eventually beckoned, and Albert was back and forth between Los Angeles and the U.K working with the likes of ‘Poet And The One Man Band’ before joining ‘The Crickets’ with whom he recorded and toured.
‘Poet And The One Man Band’ eventually turned in to ‘Heads Hands & Feet’ with whom Albert enjoyed some commercial success, most notably in the U.K.
L.A was an exciting place for Albert and he started to build a reputation among the local session playing scene, jamming and gigging wherever and with whoever he could. It wasn’t long before Albert got to meet and work with his idols, ‘The Everly Brothers’, playing with Don as lead guitarist and harmony singer in his touring band.
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