Last here in 2007, the remarkable multi talented Albert Lee returns to Australia in August for a series of club and festival shows. One of the most revered guitarists of all time, Albert is not only a lightning-fast country rock guitar virtuoso but an exceptional piano player and singer, with a fifty year career that has covered just about every style of popular music.

“Extraordinary gifts as a singer, song stylist and brilliant guitar player. His sound is unmistakable – often emulated, never equalled. When St. Peter asks me to chronicle my time down here on earth I’ll be able to say (with pride, if that’s allowed) that for a while I played rhythm guitar in a band with Albert Lee.” EMMYLOU HARRIS

Although his home is in Malibu, California, Albert is English born, and half gypsy. He first came to mainstream attention as lead guitar in Chris Farlowe’s Thunderbirds, probably Britain’s leading rhythm & blues band of the sixties. But his love of rockabilly and country guitar saw him head in a different direction, first through his cultish British band Head Hands & Feet, and then as a member of Buddy Holly’s old band The Crickets, which he joined as a replacement for pianist Glen D. Hardin, who left to tour with Elvis Presley. “I owe a lot to Elvis” says Lee. “He was responsible for two of my biggest breaks replacing Glen in The Crickets and then replacing James Burton in the The Hot Band.”

Albert was lead guitar with The Hot Band at the peak of Emmylou Harris’s career, joining other notable band members like Ricky Scaggs, Rodney Crowell and Hank DeVito. He was also the principal player on the memorable Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton album Trio, playing a whole range of instruments.

After The Hot Band there was a five year stint playing alongside Eric Clapton, who is reputed to have said that Albert is, in his opinion, the greatest guitarist in the world. Albert however doubts the veracity of this: Eric is smart enough to know that there is no one Greatest Guitarist In The World.

Albert was largely responsible for the famous reunion of The Everly Brothers in 1983, and he then played with them regularly for twenty years. In recent years Albert has been a regular part of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, along with Georgie Fame, Peter Frampton and Procul Harem’s Gary Brooker, has shared stages with Clapton (notably on the 2002 Concert For George at Londons Albert Hall), Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Tommy Emmanuel and countless others, as well as touring constantly with his own band Albert Lee & Hogans Heroes, who are currently in the middle of a lengthy tour taking in Britain, Europe and east coast USA.

On his last visit to Australia three years ago Albert ended with his final concert at The Basement being recorded for ABC TV and broadcast twice, in 2008 and 2009.