Albert Lee - 26 October 2023

This has become almost an annual event. Albert Lee returns to play at the Savoy most years - I guess he just likes to be on stage. It would be churlish not to pop into Monmouth to see him. The setlist doesn't vary much but he is 80 in December so it may be a bit late to be learning new stuff. The band was the same as last time with the Petrie brothers, Ali on keyboards gets a lot of space to show what he can do and his brother (Ian?) on bass. Good drummer as well. Albert's guitar playing is still amazing. For me it really hit the perfect fluid timing he has in the second half - I loved 'Spellbound'(a Paul Kennerley song) with the band tightly in the infectious rhythm and the Ray Charles penned Everley Bros song ('leave my woman alone'), 'Tear Stained Letter' featuring great solo stuff from Albert and Ali, 'Country Boy' - of course, and the final song of the night 'Tear it up' which he literally did. If he keeps coming back I'll keep going along.