Albert Lee - 21 October 2021

Another chance to see Albert Lee at our local old theatre The Savoy so absolutely not to be missed even in pandemic times. Having seen him in 2017 and 2019 it seems he is on a two year touring cycle despite the fact he will be 78 in December. He came on looking his age and trying to sort out his guitar and setlist. I was wondering about him but as soon as his fingers starting whizzing up and down the frets I relaxed. His set from memory was pretty much unchanged from the last time we saw him here, 'Wheels' and the impeccable 'Luxury Liner' from Gram Parsons, a couple of Rodney Crowell songs, a couple of Crickets songs ('Well All Right' and 'Rocking with Ollie Vee'), 'Tear Stained Letter' from Richard Thompson, 'Highwayman' from Jimmy webb (at the keyboards). Basically he played songs from all the people he had worked with and he had an astonishing career from playing in bars with Don Everley to his time with The Crickets, The Everley Brothers, Gram Parsons and Emmy-Lou Harris and on and on. The only time he seemed less than happy about was the five years touring with Clapton but he let off a brief phrase from Layla at one point as he finished a song. The band were a bassist and drummer whose names I didn't catch and his son Wayne Lee on keyboards ' for the last two weeks of the tour' apparently. All were good but of course the star of the show was Albert and in particular when he let loose in his inimitable fast picking style on 'Luxury Liner', 'Leave My Woman Alone' (Ray Charles), 'Tear Stained Letter', Tear it up' and of course 'Country Boy'. Classy gig - for his age unbelievable.