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Albert William Lee (born 21 December 1943) is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked, both in the studio and on tour, with many famous musicians from a wide range of genres. He has also maintained a solo career and is a noted composer and musical director.
During this time, Lee became a fan of Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. He took up guitar in 1958 when his parents bought him a second-hand Höfner President which he later traded in for a Czechoslovakia Jolana Grazioso, the forerunner of the Futurama. Lee left school at the age of 16 to play full-time.
During his time playing with Heads Hands & Feet, Lee became a "guitar hero", playing his Fender Telecaster at breakneck speed.Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music: Albert Lee entry, Guinness Publishing, 1993. Heads Hands & Feet became a popular live band in the UK, making appearances on The Old Grey Whistle Test and also in Europe, where they appeared on the German music programme Beat-Club. In October 1969 Country Fever, an RCA package toured six countries in eleven days, starting at the Nashville Room with the London band the Kingpins.Derek Watts Country Boy: A Biography of Albert Lee page 90
Lee left for Los Angeles in 1974 and, through his friend bassist Ric Grech (of Blind Faith), did some session work on three albums with the Crickets who also at the time included Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison. One of these releases is titled A Long Way From Lubbock. Lee also received many other offers of session work. In 1976, he was asked to join Emmylou Harris's Hot Band, replacing one of his heroes, James Burton, who was returning to perform with Elvis Presley. The Hot Band featured other musicians including Ricky Skaggs and Rodney Crowell. Starting in 1978, Lee worked for five years with Eric Clapton, which included playing and singing for a live concert recording at the Nippon Budokan in Japan.
Lee was responsible for the Everly Brothers' 1983 reunion concert and was its musical director. He played regularly with the Everlys for over twenty years.
In 1987, Lee was invited by Gerry Hogan to headline at a steel guitar festival in Newbury, Berkshire. Lee was at first intimidated by the prospect of having to front a band; however, the gig was successful and he toured as Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes on a regular basis until 2015. The line-up of the band included British musicians Peter Baron on drums, Gerry Hogan on guitar and Brian Hodgson on bass. Pete Wingfield was the original keyboard player, before leaving to be replaced by Elio Pace and later Gavin Povey.
They were renowned for attracting celebrities to their gigs. Stars such as Eric Clapton, Tommy Emmanuel, Lonnie Donegan, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Marty Wilde, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith, Don Everly, Emmylou Harris, Sonny Curtis and Rodney Crowell have all jammed with the band at one time or another. In 1988 Lee toured Australia along with Vince Gill, then a comparative unknown, and has returned to tour the country on several subsequent occasions.
In the early 2000s Albert Lee toured with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. In 2002, Lee appeared at the Concert for George Harrison. Also in 2002, Lee received a Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" from the CD Earl Scruggs and Friends. In September 2006 Lee took part in Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar, a documentary about the history of the guitar. Lee appeared at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival on 28 July and performed with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute show at The O2 in London on 10 December. A new album entitled Like This was released in spring 2008 to coincide with their European tour. He lives in Malibu, California.
Lee is known within the music industry for his speed of playing and his technical virtuosity and yet by the same token, one of the most melodic, playing slower passages approximating the sound of the pedal steel guitar with his Music Man and Telecaster guitars which are equipped with .
He is known as "the guitar player's guitar player". Lee is also referred to as "Mr. Telecaster". A long-time Telecaster player, Lee wrote a foreword to A.R. Duchossoir's book detailing the history of the instrument.
Lee's song "Country Boy" helped to redefine country guitar for a whole generation of players, and was later to become a hit for multi-instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs.
Despite positive press from Melody Maker and New Musical Express, Lee has never achieved any great commercial success in terms of record sales during his career, but more as a live performer, session player and sideman, perhaps due to his self-effacing stage presence. Lee has been described by his peers, who include Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore, as a complete gentleman who does not know the meaning of the word ego.
After Gram Parsons' death, Emmylou Harris was told that she could gain the backing of a major record label only if she could assemble a really "hot band". Harris did just that, enlisting guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Hardin, both of whom had played with Elvis Presley and Parsons; she named the band "The Hot Band". When Burton left to return to Elvis Presley, Lee was his replacement. Harris said of him that Lee is "a brilliant guitar player. His sound is unmistakable—often emulated, never equaled. When Saint 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."
In 2017, Lee was honoured with the Trailblazer Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Americana Awards.
Eric Clapton gave Lee the Gibson Les Paul Custom that he played while with Delaney and Bonnie. Lee also plays his signature Music Man (the guitar shown in the photographs) and a 1950s Telecaster (and has versions of both with custom ), a 1958 Stratocaster and a Martin 000-28 acoustic.
Despite his being heavily associated with the Fender Telecaster, guitar manufacturer Ernie Ball Music Man makes a signature Albert Lee guitar, which unlike typical Telecasters is offered with three single-coil or two humbucker pick-ups.
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