Foreword by Eric Clapton, ISBN 978-0-7864-3658-3, ca. 65 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index hardcover (7 x 10) 2008.
Out now, available with amazon, McFarlands and on the gigs, approx. $45.-- / € 32.--
Reviews from Readers:
Our greatest guitarist? By P.E. Davis, 10 Jun 2008
This is a superb study of Albert Lee's career and musical styles. Derek Watts writes incisive, literate prose which is revealing and witty. His research has obviously been incredibly thorough: even if (like me) your interest in Albert's playing dates back to the early stages of his career I'm sure you will find much that is new. The sheer scale of his influence and involvement in music, the ceaseless touring and the range of collaborations, all achieved with inexhaustible enthusiasm, surely make Albert Lee unique. Derek Watts captures that energy and the scenarios in which Albert has worked in one of the best musical biographies I have read.
An Excellent and Informative Read, by T. Fry - 17 Jun 2008
Biographies can oh-so-often be a mundane list of dates and events chronicling the life and times of person being written about. Derek Watts fills the life story of Albert Lee with colour and anecdotes that leads you from chapter to chapter, wanting to know what happens next. Each chapter is composed carefully and details a particular direction that Lee has taken at that time - a period of 4 to 7 years. It is clear that Watts has researched his subject carefully and has taken time to interview many, if not all, of the people involved in the life and times of Albert Lee. And it says much of Watts that he has been able to get so much from so many in what is such a busy business. I am looking forward to the next project that Watts will publish: it doesn't matter who or what it's about, it is sure to enthrall.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Eric Clapton 1
Introduction 3
Prologue: A Stopping Place 5
1. The Blackheath Years 13
2. The Times They Are A-Changin’ 28
3. Parnes, Shillings and Pence 41
4. Learning the Game 53
5. Thunderbirds Are Go! 65
6. A Country Boy at Heart 83
7. Heads, Hands and Feet 97
8. California Dreaming 118
9. From a Deeper Well 137
10. Further on Up the Road 158
11. Walk Right Back 184
12. “A Band of Heroes” 204
13. All Kings Is Mostly Rapscallions 231
Epilogue: A Stopping Place 246
Appendix A: Albert Lee’s Family History 249
Appendix B: Press Release from Ernie Ball Music Man, August 17, 1993 250
Chapter Notes 251
Bibliography 261
Index 265
Derek Watts lives in Lewes, East Sussex, England.
This comprehensive biography tells the entire story of Lee’s long career and personal experiences, beginning with his upbringing in south London and his early experimentations with skiffle music (the British equivalent of American rockabilly). The story continues into the 1960s, through Lee’s career in Chris Farlowe’s Thunderbirds and the British rock and country group Heads, Hands & Feet before covering Lee’s move to the United States in the 1970s and his subsequent work with Eric Clapton, the Crickets, Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band, the Everly Brothers, and, more recently, with Bill Wyman and with Hogan’s Heroes. Throughout the work, the author sets Lee’s career against the background of changes in popular music and assesses how Lee, as a British artist with nomadic Romany roots, has impacted traditionally “American” musical genres. The work includes 66 photographs, many from Lee’s personal collection, two appendices, and an extensive bibliography.
Man's email led to a book on a rock legend
(Hastings Observer, April 2008, source: Sussex Express Series)
A LEWES writer who emailed a rock music legend 'because no-one had ever written about him' won himself a dream ticket. Derek Watts, 64, of Cliffe High Street, is putting the finishing touches to the first-ever biography of 'the guitar player's guitar player' – Albert Lee.
Albert – who coincidentally is the same age – wowed a 1,500-strong audience at Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings concert at the Brighton Dome earlier this month.
He now lives in the USA and is best-known here for his work with Eric Clapton, The Crickets, Emmylou Harris and the Everly Brothers.
His early life takes an astonishing trajectory from Romany roots in South East London and Kent to the highest pantheon of rock music greats in the USA and the UK.
No less astonishing is how Hastings-born Derek came to land the job.
He told the Express: 'Albert was a name around my head for about 35 years.
'I went to see the band in 2003 and he just struck a chord.
'I thought, I bet Albert has had an interesting life, and then I discovered there was no book about him. 'I emailed him and asked if he'd like me to write one. 'I'd written a book about England and Sussex cricketer Jim Parks.' Albert got back in touch and said he would be interested, although he turned down numerous approaches from US-based music journalists. 'When I asked why he said: "It's because you've already written a book".'
While Albert was making his name, Derek left university, trained as a teacher and taught in Sierra Leone and Zambia, returning to teach geography, history and English in the UK in the 1970s.
This experience at marshalling facts helped him trawl through Albert's life and set up a 'timeline' so information about each decade could easily be slotted into place. 'Researching and writing the book was a fantastic journey over two-and-a-half years – in more ways than one.'
It took Derek and his partner, Gerry (pictured with Albert) to Nashville and Albert's home town of Los Angeles. Albert had given Derek signed pieces of paper instructing every one he wanted to interview 'to give him all the help you can'.
He interviewed the likes of Jerry Allison and Sonny Curtis of The Crickets, Chris Farlowe, Emmylou Harris ('intelligent, articulate, lovely, very together') Chris Farlowe and Chas and Dave. In October 2005 he talked at length to Eric Clapton who agreed to write the introduction. There were some he couldn't get hold of in time like Joe Cocker and Shakin' Stevens – but all Derek's interviewees, no matter how stellar themselves, agreed every aspiring guitarist wants to play like Albert. He chatted to Bill Wyman before a Rhythm Kings concert and even sat in on a two-and-a-half-hour rehearsal – 'one of my abiding and fondest memories. 'They're a bit like a Sunday football team – whoever is around on the day joins in.'
Derek described his latest subject as 'the most laid-back, unpushy man you could meet'. Albert's family were Romany fairground folk operating coconut shies in London and Kent (yes, some of the coconuts were filled with lead). He pointed out: 'Romany history is aural and all those tales of dancing round the camp fire have roots in fact.'
Born in Leominster where his accordian and fiddle-playing dad was on wartime service, he was taught the piano, mentally transposing the keyboard onto the frets of his guitar. He experimented with skiffle where his nomadic soul meshed in spirit with the established American country scene – itself rooted in the songs and music of first-generation immigrants who built the railroads.
His talent spiralled him through the 60s into a career with Chris Farlowe's Thunderbirds and the British cult rock and country group, Heads, Hands and Feet before moving to the USA.
Married for more than 20 years he has five children, and lives in a wood-framed house overhanging a canyon in Malibu where every surface is elbow-deep in books, CDs, musical instruments, 'heaps of stuff which no-one moves'.
Photo left: Chiddingfold 2008 where the book was just out and Derek Watts kept me one of the first five copies.
