Albert Cummings

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Albert Cummings No Regrets

No Regrets is Albert Cummings latest release that will be heading out to the world at the end of August. This blues album has just the right touch of rock and country among other influences to appeal to a wide range of music lovers. In the quest for an amazing musical sound, Albert Cummings (guitar, vocals) is accompanied by Dave Smith (bass), Steve Potts (drums), Rick Steff (keyboard/piano), Jimmy D. Taylor (harmonica) and all the background vocals are covered by Vickie Adkins, Kimberlie Helton and Kevin Paige. The album was produced by Jim Gaines.

No Regrets is an album that will astound and you should allot yourself a few hours of time before you start listening to it, because you will probably want to listen to it a few times once you have heard it.

If first impressions are the most important, then consider “Glass House” a marvelous one to start off this album. The guitar is just fantastic here and, if this song is any indication, it bodes well for the rest of the way. One track in and I am already blown away by the music. The good tunes keep on coming with “500 Miles,” while slowing down the tempo a bit is the sultry “Eye to Eye.” Getting things going again is the roaring “Checkered Flag” It comes out rocking and never stops. It is as energetic and exciting as its subject matter. Taking the sound in a completely different direction is “She’s So Tired,” showing off the versatile nature of music and the emotional depths that can be reached. “Your Day Will Come” marks the halfway point and the album is as strong and rocking as ever.

“Drink Party and Dance” is a celebration of having a good time supported by some killer guitar action. Following up the ode to partying, “Foolin Me” is my favorite song on the album. With its killer bass and clever and biting lyrics such as I think you’re mistaking me for someone who cares, “Foolin Me” is a top quality song that demands repeat listens. The reflective and heartfelt “Home Town” caps off the album with a healthy dose of nostalgia.

The music of Albert Cummings is categorized as blues, but categories are there more for the stores and the critics. Albert Cummings is so good that the music reaches the level of moving beyond categories and genres. It is not something to pass up. With its late August release date, Albert Cumming’s No Regrets is a good way to end the summer.

 

Key Tracks: Glass House, Checkered Flag, Your Day Will Come, Foolin Me, Mannish Boy,

Brian McKinnon – Sr. MuzikReviews.com Staff

August 3, 2012

Albert Cummings Hits the Nail on the Head with his Best Release to Date

 

Albert Cummings Hits the Nail on the Head with his Best Release to Date

By Dave Rubin

Virtuoso house-rocking guitarist, singer and songwriter Albert Cummings has fulfilled the exceptional promise of his early career with No Regrets, his sensational sixth album due out August 28. Combining his varied influences of rock, R&B, country and pop with the overriding soul and emotional firepower of the blues, he has produced a masterpiece of roots-based American music. Maturity has served him well as his vocals have acquired gravitas over time, becoming more expressive and nuanced, while his writing has reached another plateau of seamless song craft that is as stimulating for the mind as the body.

Muscular blues-rock or deep and introspective ballads provide musical nourishment within the strikingly original compositions that comprise the bulk of the performance. A fresh and vibrant cover of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” is proof positive that when the creative juices are flowing this freely, they transform everything they touch.

Throwing down the gauntlet to his peers in the heavyweight guitar division, Cummings blisters the strings of his Stratocaster with grace and effortless ease, while not being afraid to throttle down and demonstrate the power of taste and restraint. Most importantly, he knows how to play to the song better than ever, supporting his lyric content and vocal delivery with consummate accompaniment.

If anyone thought Albert Cummings was laying back and coasting on past accomplishments the past couple of years, they will be in for a welcome surprise when they hear his new release. More like the shock of recognition when you hear an unexpected musical triumph that is the mark of a major artist who has broken through to undeniable greatness.

Pittsburgh Blues Festival: Genre not downer for Albert Cummings

by Michael Machosky

Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 8:40 p.m.
Updated 7 hours ago

The Pittsburgh Blues Festival has an exceptionally strong, diverse lineup this year, including actual legends like gospel singer Mavis Staples and blues-soul giant Bobby “Blue” Bland.

The old-timers still are the biggest draws, and that’s OK — they’ve earned it. But what will happen when they finally hang up their microphones and guitars for good?

To find out, it’s worth showing up in time to catch some of the lesser-billed artists, who will someday have to carry on the blues tradition alone. People like Albert Cummings, who plays at 3 p.m.

Cummings still isn’t entirely sure how a middle-class white guy from small-town Massachusetts arrived at the blues. But he certainly got there. The singer-guitarist was inspired by the electric guitar pyrotechnics of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but has lately been charting out his own, personal take on the blues.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Cummings says. “I grew up in a real rural community, in Williamstown Massachusetts. … There’s no such thing as blues there. My father had a small farm. Country music is all I listened to. I was a senior in high school and didn’t know who Eric Clapton was. My brother-in-law used to give me cassette tapes, and gave me some Stevie Ray Vaughan.”

He went to college, then came back to work in his family’s custom home-building business. He played guitar constantly, and won multiple awards — for building high-end custom homes.

Then, the recession hit the business hard. But that opened up an opportunity.

“Right now, times are terrible, and building isn’t doing well, so maybe the other thing has a shot,” he says.

Blues music has always been associated with suffering and hard times, but it functions differently for Cummings.

“One thing I say about the blues is that it helps me stay positive, even though it’s considered a depressing music. But it’s really an inspiration to me. That’s what I try to do in my music. Blues is a really fun, up music. If you let it in, you’ll see. It’s not all about ‘My baby left me/I got run over by a train.’ ”

Many have remarked that Cummings has a flashy, Texas blues style of playing, in the vein of his hero Vaughan. It’s also possible that angle has been oversold a bit.

“I think I’m more of a melting pot,” he says. “Delbert McClinton, Stevie, Clapton, Jimmy Thackeray — I love all these guys. I see us all as completely different. We all have different voices.

“The only thing I can say is I’m Albert Cummings. I’m not good enough to be anyone else. I just play my own stuff. If I sound like someone else too much, I change it. My motto is ‘Be yourself, because everyone else is taken.’ ”

 

“NO REGRETS” Release August 28, 2012

ALBERT CUMMINGS RETURNS WITH NO REGRETS ON AUGUST 28, 2012

Williamstown, MA — Albert Cummings will release his sixth album titled No Regrets on August 28, 2012 via the Ivy Music Company. Poignantly capturing the core of his influences, and displaying the impact that R&B, Rock, Soul, Country and the Blues have had on both his playing and writing, No Regrets is everything the guitarist aimed to capture when returning to the studio. Cummings shares, “This album is really who I am, as an artist and a man. It’s a return to my true musical roots and the first step in really defining my identity as a mature artist. I approached this with one intent – deliver a collection of great songs that I’ll be proud to perform for the rest of my life without feeling confined to a specific genre. I am a Blues man, and I will always be one, but inevitably that foundation now reveals a couple of other floors being constructed as the house rises.”

Cummings, who has built a reputation on stages across the globe as a brawny Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired muso, revealed a more varied and personal space with these Jim Gaines produced recordings. He reveals, “A lot of my fans don’t know that I started playing bluegrass on the five-string banjo and listening to country music. I didn’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll or even blues until I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was in high school. And hearing Stevie changed my life. Immediately, I knew what I wanted to do. Now, in my position, I have complete artistic freedom, which means the music on No Regrets is really me without any filters.”

Cummings started playing banjo before his teens. Although his roots in music made by the likes of Bill Monroe, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings are just starting to emerge in his own compositions, his early banjo finger picking style has long helped to make him a unique guitarist. After hearing Vaughan, Cummings turned to the Stratocaster and blues, devouring albums by his legendary Texas hero and by Vaughan’s influences, but carefully crafting a style all his own. In 1999 he released his self-made debut The Long Way, but his next album, 2003’s From The Heart, featured and was produced by Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton, a/k/a Vaughan’s rhythm section Double Trouble. “Having them hear something in my playing that made them want to work with me was an
incredible honor,” Cummings says.

True To Yourself, in 2004, began Cummings’ still-standing alliance with producer Jim Gaines, whose credits include John Lee Hooker, Santana, Huey Lewis, Tower of Power, Walter Trout and a host of other blues, rock and R&B luminaries. Next came Working Man and Feel So Good, in 2006 and 2008, respectively. Those releases cemented his reputation as one of contemporary blues guitar’s leading lights. Cummings is proud of No Regrets, and reveals, “At the end of the day, you have to be yourself or you don’t have anything to offer as an artist. And right now, this is really who I am. These are my thoughts. I’ve got my own thing and my own sound. Hopefully this is the foundation of the big house that I want to build for my music, and inevitably with that the audience and my fans will connect to these songs that mean so much to me.”

For more information contact:
Steve Karas
SKH Music
917-420-0728
skaras@skhmusic.com

http://albertcummings.com/
http://www.facebook.com/albertcummingsmusic
App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/albert-cummings/id465952221?mt=8

 

New dates added!

  

New dates have been added to Albert’s schedule. Please check them out at www.albertcummings.com

 

Guitarist Albert Cummings still growing – and wowing crowds

If you ever think it’s too late to follow your dreams or even switch careers, you should talk to Albert Cummings.

The 43-year-old blues guitarist, who will bring his act to the Iron Horse Music Hall on Friday didn’t start playing guitar until he was in his teens, and didn’t really pursue it until about 27 or 28. And he says he’s still learning.

“I’m still pretty naive about some stuff,” he said with a chuckle during a telephone interview last week. “But what keeps me going is that I’m good at playing Albert Cummings stuff. I never play other people’s stuff note-for-note because I don’t want to, plus, I can’t.”

That alleged naiveté has taken him a long way. Cummings, a Williamstown native, has drawn many comparisons to his hero, Stevie Ray Vaughn but he has really carved out both his own sound and style on the six-string. This mastery of guitar is striking, because until his teenage years, he only had played banjo.

“I was always into guitar because my father was a guitarist but he only higher long before I came along,” Cummings said. “So there was a guitar around but as a kid my hands were too small to to get around the neck. But my fathers friend showed me how to play banjo,which had a thinner neck. Since I loved bluegrass, it was perfect. I found something I could play well, and being a kid, with all that free time, I got good at it.”

As he grew up, he found he could now handle the guitar but didn’t do much with it—until a chance occurrence when he was in Boston at age 19: He saw a sign for a Stevie Ray Vaughn show at The Orpheum and decided to go.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “My father played in big bands and there wasn’t a lot of improvisation, so I never knew you could do what Stevie did with a guitar. I walked out of that show and knew what I wanted to do and said goodbye to the banjo forever.”

But although he started developing his chops, it would be another eight or nine years before he could really dedicate himself to the guitar. As a fourth-generation builder, he wasted to grow his business—which he still has—first.

“I actually never even thought of getting a band. I didn’t think I wanted to do that, but then I got the itch to try it. I’m only reaching point where I really want to go for it full-out,” he said.

One motivation for his ongoing pursuit of his dream came years ago when he opened for B.B. King, an honor he’s had 26 times. After a show, one of King’s assistants told Cummings that the blues legend wanted to see him. Cummings thought he might have done something wrong and was worried King was going to chastise him.

“I walked into the room and he said, ‘Sit down, Albert,’ and I thought I was in trouble,” Cummings said. “But then he told me how much he liked my playing, and I thought, ‘Wow, I’m being blessed by the master.’ It was such an honor.”

Albert Cummings Instructional Guitar DVD

Albert Cummings – Working Man Blues Guitar
http://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.do?itemid=320875&lid=0&keywords=albert%20cummings&subsiteid=1&

 
Genuine Electric Blues Guitar Techniques, Tips, and Concepts
Series: Instructional/Guitar/DVD
Format: DVD – TAB
Artist: Albert Cummings
Join blues guitar master Albert Cummings in this intimate instructional DVD featuring on-screen tablature and tons of great advice on learning and living blues guitar. From basic guitar licks and right-hand techniques to informative tips on the art of creating music, Albert shares with you his years of experience and passion for the blues. 1 hour, 5 minutes.

Blues Revue Interviews

Sixteen High Definition Private Performance Videos Including A Two-Part Interview With Blues Revue Editor Art Tipaldi!

This edition of The Juke Joint was filmed at Don O’Dell’s Blues Time studio in high definition as part of his Legends series. It features a revealing two-part interview with Blues Revue Editor Art Tipaldi discussing the many facets of Albert Cummings’ career. In Part One Cummings reveals his musical influences, talks about seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan for the first time, and what it was like being chosen to be the only artist other than Stevie Ray Vaughan to ever record an entire album with Double Trouble. In Part Two, Cummings reveals the inner workings of how his band operates and reflects on the success and challenges of his band’s twelve years of touring. He also discusses the effect mass media, social networking, and technology have had on the blues.

If you’ve enjoyed this edition of The Juke Joint please leave a comment, click the FaceBook “like” button at the top of the page to share it with your friends and go subscribe to Don O’Dell’s Blues Time page at YouTube; it’s free just click here! Most important, take a minute to visit Albert Cummings website, buy a CD or a song, and go to see his show, he is on tour. And if he’s not coming to your local Juke Joint then get involved and get him there, you’ll have a great time.

Enjoy this great interview!

Below is one part of the interview for more go to: http://bluesrevue.com/2011/04/the-juke-joint-04-16-11/