Kathy Hicks-Murray, Maura Kilsdonk (Assistant Photographer)
We showed up at the venue about an hour before show start and the room was already half full of guests, eating dinner. As it got closer to 8:00pm, we saw all the tables had nearly filled up and noted that that the show must have been close to sold out. This was not the first time I had seen Albert Lee perform – it was however the first time I had gotten press credentials to photograph him and I was super excited. I and my family have been long time admirers of his and the many musicians he has worked with, so this truly was an honor.
The opening act came on at 8:00, The Cryers, a classic rock and roll quartet based out of New Jersey, featuring main frontman Joe Orlando on bass. They played some original songs and classic rock favorites and had the crowd roaring and ready to go when Albert hit the stage at 9:00.
He came out to a standing ovation and approached the microphone. He talked about his very first tour in 1960, taking a steam train up to Scotland at the age of sixteen. He then laughed and said to the audience in his soft-spoken Birmingham-tinged accent, “Are there any musicians in the audience?” He paused for a moment for the audience to respond, then continued, “Because if there are, you know that we don’t get pensions.” We all laughed at this as he broke into his first number, the first track off his new album, ‘Setting Me Up’, originally a Dire Straits song, written by Mark Knopfler. If there had been space to do so, I’m fairly sure people would have been up on their feet dancing.
Albert took us on a great journey of his past hits including ‘Spellbound’ [Paul Kennerly/Shawn Camp], ‘Restless’ [Carl Perkins], and ‘Country Boy’ [Albert Lee/Tony Colton/Ray Smith] which was later recorded and made a major #1 hit by Ricky Skaggs.
He weaved some wonderful life experiences throughout the show. In 1976 he was approached by Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band to fill in for James Burton for a couple of weeks while James went to play with Elvis. He quipped to the audience that it was an especially good time for him, as he was being let go of Clapton’s band. Burton went on to play with Elvis until his demise in 1977. Albert played with Emmylou and the Hot Band until roughly 1980 when he moved on to other commitments. At this point in the show, he played one of my favorite Emmylou Harris songs, one that he helped make famous with his extraordinary guitar picking, ‘Luxury Liner.’
He introduced the next songs with another story, one that really brought a flood of personal memories for me, having grown up on their music and singing it with my mother. He spoke of the first time he met the Everly Brothers – well, specifically Phil Everly, at the Savoy Hotel. “Don,” he said, “was ‘unwell’ and the way Phil put it was, he was put into a straight-jacket and put on a plane off to the States.” Albert started off initially working with just Phil until Don was well enough to join, and played off and on with them over the years, until they sadly broke up in 1973, in a very public breakup, on-stage at Knotts Berry Farm. They didn’t speak for about ten years. Then a while later, he ended up being on the same club circuit as Don in LA, and they did some recording and a little touring together. He recalled being at the Wembley Country Music Festival with Emmylou Harris, and Don was there as a solo artist. Don approached him and asked him to play some lead guitar on some Everly Brothers songs with him, and he said sure. They started off a song and got about two bars into it and Don stopped him and said, “You’re going to sing with me, aren’t you?” Albert said, “What?!” and Don repeated, “I want you to sing with me!” He continued the story to us, ‘Meanwhile, you have to realize that this is being videoed by the BBC, so, I was an Everly Brother on national TV.’ He followed this story with two Everly Brothers songs that he recorded on his latest album, the title track ‘Lay It Down’, and ‘The Price of Love.’
He introduced the band, JT Thomas on Keyboards, Dave Chamberlain on Bass, and Charlie Faragher on Drums. Then he set his guitar in the stand, and swapped places with the keyboard player. The next song he played, also off the new album, is about the love of a car, written by Jim Webb, called ‘Too Young to Die’. He followed that up with another famously haunting Jim Webb tune, ‘Highwayman’, also on the keyboard, a rendition that gave me goosebumps.
As if the enormity of the catalog he played wasn’t enough, Albert came out and played a two song encore, including Glen Campbells’ ‘A Better Place’, one of the very last songs he wrote. He ended the night with the rocking hit, ‘Tear It Up’, and had the crowd on their feet with another standing ovation as he exited the stage to set up for a meet and greet with the audience.
A truly fantastic show, by a master of music, and still rocking hard at almost 82. I will always find time and resources to see Albert Lee when he comes to the area, for as long as the universe allows.
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