This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Albert Cummings | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Genres | Blues |
Instrument(s) | Guitar |
Years active | 1999–present |
Labels | Provogue Records |
Website | albertcummings |
Albert Cummings (born Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States) is an American blues musician who has recorded with Blind Pig Records. [1] He has played alongside B.B. King, Johnny Winter, and Buddy Guy. [2]
Cummings began playing the five-string banjo at the age of twelve. He started to learn basic chords and progressions and went on to become a fan of bluegrass music. In his late teens, he encountered the early recordings of Stevie Ray Vaughan. While in college, in 1987, he saw Vaughan perform. His first public guitar performance was in 1997 when he played at his friend's wedding reception. [3] In Cummings’ late twenties, he formed the band Swamp Yankee. In 1999, they released an independently produced album, The Long Way. The trio spent two hours in a recording studio to record the nine songs for the album.
After the album’s release, the band went on the Northeast blues circuit. In 1998, Cummings walked into a Northeast Blues Society open jam. In 1999, the musician competed in the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge, in Memphis. The following year, he released his debut recording.
He later worked with Double Trouble, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section. Bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton voluntarily played on and produced Cummings' solo debut recording, two thousand and three’s self-released From the Heart. Recorded in Austin, Texas, it featured Cummings fronting Double Trouble (including Reese Wynans) in their first recording project since Stevie Ray’s passing.
The blues is best served up live, with an enthusiastic audience and a killin' band, and that's exactly what guitarist Albert Cummings does[...]. Cummings effortlessly shifts from chimney subdued stylings to raucous roadhouse raunch to soaring yet stinging lead lines, driving his audience to frenzy in all the right places.
— Guitar Edge Magazine
Cummings was signed to Blind Pig Records in 2004 with a multi-album deal. Shannon remained as the bassist for Cummings' next album, True To Yourself , released in 2004.
In 2006, Cummings recorded a fourth album Working Man, with new band members.
In 2008, Cummings released a live album Feels So Good, recorded at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
In 2011, Cummings released an instructional DVD for the Hal Leonard Corporation entitled, Working Man Blues Guitar. His 2012 album No Regrets debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., Canada and France on the iTunes Blues Charts and at No. 5 on the Billboard blues charts. In a 2012 interview, he called No Regrets his "best album yet".
In July 2015, Cummings released Someone Like You, a 12-track Blind Pig album produced by David Z.
In February 2020, Cummings released his 11-track Provogue Records debut titled Believe, produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Jim Gaines. Recording at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, influenced the creation of the project according to Cummings,”If I had recorded those same songs anywhere else, then Believe would have sounded like a completely different album.” A notable track on the album is a cover of the song Hold On by legendary soul duo Sam & Dave.
On April 8, 2022, Cummings released Ten, a 13-track Ivy Music Company album produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Chuck Ainlay. [4] A Blues Rock Review article described the compilation as "the blues rocker's gone country" suggesting that in this album Cummings reveals “discovered depth and complexity within a new style”. [5]
Cummings' tenth album, Strong, was released in 2024.
Stephen Ray Vaughan was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians in the history of blues music, and one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He was the younger brother of guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.
Texas Flood is the debut studio album by the American blues rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, released on June 13, 1983, by Epic Records. The album was named after a cover song featured on the album, "Texas Flood", which was first recorded by blues singer Larry Davis in 1958. Produced by the band and recording engineer Richard Mullen, Texas Flood was recorded in the space of three days at Jackson Browne's personal recording studio in Los Angeles. Vaughan wrote six of the album's ten tracks.
In Step is the fourth studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble released in 1989. The title In Step can be seen as referring to Vaughan's new-found sobriety, following the years of drug and alcohol use that eventually led Vaughan into rehabilitation. It was also Vaughan's final album with Double Trouble and the last album to be released during his lifetime. In 1990, he recorded an album with his brother, Jimmie Vaughan, called Family Style; later that same year, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash.
Couldn't Stand the Weather is the second studio album by American blues rock band Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. It was released on May 15, 1984, by Epic Records as the follow-up to the band's critically and commercially successful 1983 album, Texas Flood. Recording sessions took place in January 1984 at the Power Station in New York City.
Albert Nelson, known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and influential album Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) and its title track. He, B.B. King, and Freddie King, all unrelated, were known as the "Kings of the Blues". The left-handed Albert King was known for his "deep, dramatic sound that was widely imitated by both blues and rock guitarists".
Robert William Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards.
Jimmie Lawrence Vaughan Jr. is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the late Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.
"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968 that appears as the final track on the groups's third studio album, Electric Ladyland, released that year. It contains improvised guitar and a vocal from Hendrix, backed by Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. The song is one of Hendrix's best known; it was a feature of his concert performances throughout his career, and several live renditions were recorded and released on later albums.
Double Trouble is an American blues rock band from Austin, Texas, which served as the backing band for singer-guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. The group was active throughout the 1980s and contributed to reviving blues music, inspiring many later blues and rock acts. Formed in Austin, Texas in 1978, the group went through several early line-up changes before settling on a power trio consisting of Vaughan, Chris Layton (drums), Tommy Shannon (bass). They became a four-piece by 1985 after adding Reese Wynans (keyboards). Whilst with Vaughan they were billed Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Rooted in blues and rock music, the group worked in various genres ranging from ballads to soul, often incorporating jazz and other musical elements.
"Love Struck Baby" is a blues rock song performed by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Vaughan wrote the song about the night that he moved in with his then-wife, Lenny. The track was produced by Vaughan for the band's debut album Texas Flood, recorded in Los Angeles. "Love Struck Baby" was the first single from Texas Flood, released by Epic Records in the United States and United Kingdom. In the song's accompanying music video, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton are shown relaxing at a bar before Vaughan enters and starts performing the song for a crowd. "Love Struck Baby" was a concert favorite for fans of the band; Vaughan would frequently play the guitar behind his head for part of the solo.
The Sky Is Crying is the fifth and final studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, compiling songs recorded throughout most of their career. Released 14 months after Vaughan's death in 1990, the album features ten previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1984 and 1989. Only one title, "Empty Arms", appeared on any of the group's previous albums. The tracks were compiled by Vaughan's brother, Jimmie Vaughan, and was Vaughan's highest charting album at number 10.
JW-Jones is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He is a Juno Award nominee (2015), Billboard magazine Top 10 Selling artist, and winner of the International Blues Challenge for "Best Self-Produced CD Award" for his release 'High Temperature' in 2017 and Best Guitarist in 2020.
In Session is a blues album by Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded live for television on December 6, 1983, at CHCH-TV studios in Hamilton, Ontario, when Vaughan was 29 and King was 60. It was released as an album on August 17, 1999, and re-released with a supplemental video recording on DVD on September 28, 2010. It has also been released on CD and SACD.
"The Sky Is Crying" is a blues standard written and initially recorded by Elmore James in 1959. Called "one of his most durable compositions", "The Sky Is Crying" became a R&B record chart hit and has been interpreted and recorded by numerous artists.
William Zach "Zac" Harmon is an American blues musician from Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Harmon was signed to Toronto's NorthernBlues Music until 2015, when he announced his signing to San Francisco–based Blind Pig Records.
Roy Rogers is an American blues rock slide guitarist and record producer. He was named after the singing cowboy. Rogers plays a variety of guitar styles related to the Delta blues, but is most often recognized for his virtuoso slide work.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was an American blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and the frontman for the band Double Trouble. He is often regarded as one of the greatest guitarists and blues musicians of all time. During his career, he released four studio albums, one live album, and several singles.
"Don't You Lie to Me" is a song recorded by Tampa Red in 1940. It became popular with blues artists, leading it to become a blues standard. The song was also interpreted by rock and roll pioneers Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.
Altered Five Blues Band is an American five-piece blues band. Formed in 2002 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, they have released six albums since 2008. Their 2021 release, Holler If You Hear Me, reached number three on the US Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart. The current line-up consists of frontman Jeff Taylor, guitarist Jeff Schroedl, bass player Mark Solveson, drummer Alan Arber, plus the returning keyboardist Steve Huebler.