Over the many decades Albert Lee has strapped on an axe, he’s earned the nickname Mr. Telecaster.
As one of England’s pre-eminent country-rock guitarists, Lee has spent decades playing his trusty Fender Telecaster—first with Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band, then in a five-year stint as a sideman for Eric Clapton and later as musical director for the Everly Brothers, a run that began with the duo’s 1983 reunion concert. Now, at 81, the octogenarian rock god performs at 8pm Monday, June 16, at HopMonk Tavern in Sebastopol.
While most 80-somethings might be content reminiscing about the glory days, this affable Brit is still out promoting his most recent studio album, last year’s Lay It Down. The record is a beautifully played collection of covers that nod to several of Lee’s heroes, including the Everly Brothers, Bobby Darin and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Still, Lee admits he’d rather be on stage—even if time has brought a few challenges.
“The guy who books me in England said we needed new music for the next tour,” Lee said. “I have to be forced to do these things. Everybody was saying we’ve got to do this, so we booked Konk, the Kinks’ studio. My feeling was, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to find songs.’ But it turned out really well considering the time it was done. I’m really happy to have it out there. I found some old photographs where I don’t look quite so old. But it’s been a bit of a struggle for me because not having played before heading out on this tour, I lost the calluses on my fingers. I’m 81 now, so the skin gets kind of thin in your 80s. It’s taken a while to build them up.”
Calluses or not, Lee’s two days in the studio yielded a set packed with in-concert favorites. Highlights include a rollicking take on Dire Straits’ “Setting Me Up,” a countrypolitan-flavored cover of the Chris Hillman/Gram Parsons tune “Wheels” and a sweeping rendition of Jimmy Webb’s “Too Young to Die.”
An unabashed interpreter of others’ work, Lee hasn’t penned anything new lately.
“We just booked some studio time, went in for a couple of days and knocked out a few tracks,” he said. “These are songs it’s taken me a few years to get around to learning. And a good lot of them are ones we’ve been doing on stage.”
Lee’s musical journey began as a child idolizing early 1950s pop stars like Johnnie Ray, Doris Day and Guy Mitchell. But it was skiffle king Lonnie Donegan’s covers of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly that inspired him to pick up a guitar. By 1960, he was on his first tour. Later, it was American country legends Jimmy Bryant and James Burton who sparked his lifelong love affair with the Telecaster.
“Jimmy Bryant had a crazy swing/country style and I could tell he was playing a Telecaster,” Lee recalled. “Around that time I’d become a huge fan of James Burton with Ricky Nelson, and James was playing a Telecaster, too. By 1963, I found a second-hand Telecaster and that changed my life completely.”
By the late ’60s, Lee had gone from playing with Chris Farlowe’s Thunderbirds to performing country music for U.S. military bases in the U.K. At the same time, Clapton, Page and Beck were becoming household names. Lee nearly abandoned country music altogether—until he was asked to join Head Hands & Feet, a British band often dubbed the U.K.’s answer to the Flying Burrito Brothers.
“I think we were influenced by people like Jimmy Webb, because there were two main writers in the band [Ray Smith and Tony Colton], and they did some country songs,” Lee said. “At that time, we were influenced by the Band as well. What was good about Head Hands & Feet is they forced me into playing piano more, which was interesting because as a kid I was lazy and I remember my piano teachers telling my parents they were wasting their time because I wasn’t practicing between lessons. But I’ve been an avid pianist since my time in Head Hands & Feet. I’m grateful for my time in that band because it was a good introduction to America for me.”
The band’s reputation opened doors. After it dissolved, Lee resettled in Southern California, where he connected with future collaborators like the Everly Brothers and Emmylou Harris. Ironically, his big break with Harris came when he replaced his guitar hero, James Burton.
“I’d first met the Everly Brothers in ’62 or ’63 and got really friendly with their guitar player, Don Peake, who is still a dear friend of mine,” Lee said. “By the time I got to L.A. the first time, Phil Everly came out to see Head Hands & Feet. After my group broke up in ’73, I was living in Los Angeles. A friend of mine called to say Don was playing at a local bar near where I was living. He told me to come on out because it was a great band and Don was leading it. I took my guitar out to this small bar and Don loved what I was doing.”
He added, “The real turning point for me was when I went to see Emmylou play this one gig down in Laguna Hills by the beach around ’74 or ’75. She asked what I was doing for the next couple of weeks and said, ‘Albert, we need you,’ because James was off to play with Elvis.”
Fast-forward to the present, and Lee has no plans to slow down.
“I’m 81 now, so I’m fortunate to still have the gigs out there,” he said. “It’s getting harder, but I’ll keep doing it. It’s like what I tell young musicians: Don’t do all your practicing in your bedroom. Get out there and play with other musicians. That’s when you really learn something. It proved well for me.”
Albert Lee performs at 8pm Monday, June 16, at HopMonk Tavern Sebastopol, 230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. Tickets start at $36.37 and are available at bit.ly/albert-lee-hopmonk.
that is not a telecaster…