Albert King Albert

The last time Albert King was in town, over at Ethel's Cocktail Lounge, we talked to him backstage one night about his long career in the blues business. He mentioned that his first trip to Michigan was in the late 40's and not related to music at all - he came up from Arkansas to Benton Harbor to earn some money picking fruit.

Albert, of course, had the good sense/to return quickly to the south land, where he could concentrate on his guitar picking instead. Since then he's been happy to work hard in blues clubs all over the country, developing in the process modern, soaring electric sound some 10 years before white rock n' roll musicians started copying it note for note.

Albert King also has the somewhat unusual ability to create down-to-earth blues with a big commercial hook, and he's well-remembered for the likes of "Born Under a Bad Sign," "Blues Power," 'I'll Play the Blues for You," and his most recent hit, "Cadillac Assembly Line."

But Albert's bread and butter is that amazingly fluid style which seems to use an unlimited amount of powerful, cutting guitar licks that just keep on coming. Albert is a singer of considerable quality too, but put him in front of a hard-vamping big band and his guitar alone can create endless fire and poetry.

Producer Bert de Coteaux (who was also responsible for "Cadillac Assembly Line") puts Albert King in front of a big west coast studio band on his latest album for RCA/Utopia, Albert. And the electric magic is there, crackling out at you, screaming through "Ain't Nothin' You Can Do" and a swinging version of "l'm Ready."

As Albert himself says at moments like this, "Whooooo!"

-Frank Bach