Albert Lee’s tastefully mindblowing music By Chris Cooper 08/07/30
2 Can your grandpa rock and roll like this
3 Leave my woman alone
4 On the verge
5 I'm coming home
6 Runaway train
7 I'll never get over you
8 Barnyard b oogie
9 Two step too
10 Why me
11 Pearl of the quarter
12 Breathless
13 Crying in the rain
14 Rad Gumbo
English singer/guitarist extraordinaire Albert Lee has led an interesting — to say the least — career. A Brit with a distinctly southern delivery may not be completely surprising, but Lee’s authenticity of delivery (be it on the guitar or vocally) in the country vein is undeniable. His work with Emmylou Harris stands as some of the most tasteful and fitting to the style ever put to wax, but don’t forget that he was also employed by Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and Jackson Browne, to name a few. In many ways, Albert Lee has been a chameleon, able to fit his virtuosic abilities into almost any style and genre. My introduction to Lee’s playing came in the form of an early 90’s issue of Musician magazine that covered a NAMM show concert that consisted of Lee, fusion master Steve Morse and rock god Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen came out the loser, if that tells you anything.
Considering the state of “modern” country music, Like This is a breath of fresh air. It embraces the better parts of singer/songwriter oriented country, rockabilly and swing, all the while keeping a steady eye on the word “virtuosity.” In most respects, the songs on Like This deserve to be heard on country radio — “Can Your Grandpa Rock And Roll Like This” is a knowing nod to Lee and band’s age as much as it is the musicality afforded by such experience — and the main riff for “Leave My Woman Alone” owes as much to the classic “Workin’ Man’s Blues” as it is an interpretation of the Ray Charles gem. With the addition of Lee’s stupefying guitar work, the song takes on an entirely new personality. His ability to pull off such amazing licks sans the parlor tricks common to the modern guitarist, like distortion and other such flub masking tools, is simply amazing.
But this isn’t just a six-string workout, even though his guitar (and Gerry Hogan’s pedal steel) get plenty of attention throughout the course of the album. Like This is still more of a song oriented-affair; consider the opening track — “Skip Rope Song” — which features only Lee’s vocal and piano skills, accompanied by Hogan’s Dobro and a sparse string arrangement.
As well, Lee shares the vocal with his bandmates on many tracks. Keyboardist Elio Pace takes lead vocal on “I’m Comin’ Home” and drummer Peter Baron handles lead vocal on “I’ll Never Get Over You” as well as the Steely Dan cover “Pearl Of The Quarter.” And in addition to his six string and piano talents, Lee provides acoustic guitar and mandolin on several tracks, “On The Verge” being an easy standout for that elusive “crossover” potential. Lee’s exemplary skills as a bandleader and sideman are evenly distributed over the course of Like This, allowing him to take the reins of a tune like “Runaway Train” as easily as he accompanies his bandmates on other tracks.
But for any fan of the electric guitar, Like This provides almost too much to fit into this space to appreciate. As a fan of Lee’s work for almost two decades, any opportunity to shed some light on one of the greatest of the unknown (or at the very least egregiously unsung) of all “guitar heroes” is an opportunity I’ll take. His inherent musicality, impeccable timing and seemingly limitless bag of ideas have left those lucky enough to hear him (even luckier those that have seen him in person) dumbfounded. It’s not empty praise, mind you — bear in mind that it was Lee that gave “Slowhand” Clapton a run for his money many times on stage, whether the notoriously self-effacing Brit is willing to admit it or not. At the core of it all is Lee’s rare combination of technical skill and sophistication, his ability to spin such creative and musical lines while never resorting to mere showboating. Add to this the tunefulness of nearly everything on Like This, and you’ve got something resembling a true winner. Between Sonny Landreth’s From The Reach and Lee’s latest, it’s been a fantastic year for releases in the “tasteful but mind-blowing” music category.
(Chris Cooper can be reached at thumbpick43@yahoo.com)
