Review: Albert Cummings ‘Strong’
By Hal Horowitz
Many parents urge their kids to “have something to fall back on” in case their dream livelihood doesn’t pan out. While we don’t know what blues rocking guitarist Albert Cummings’ folks told him, that’s advice he has followed. In his case though, both his occupations proved profitable.
Call it a win-win.
Cummings first picked up guitar at 15. But his priority was to be a builder, a business he has since won awards for. Seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan live inspired the contractor to turn professional as a guitarist, releasing his debut recording in 1999 at the relatively late age of 32. Vaughan’s bassist (Tommy Shannon) and drummer (Chris Layton) were impressed enough to produce, help compose and play on his next album, 2001’s From the Heart.
Since then he has recorded nine studio sets and a live one for a variety of high profile labels (Blind Pig, Provogue), produced by some of the top names in his roots blues/rocking genre (David Z., Jim Gaines), toured the world as a festival headliner and seen his albums notch the upper reaches of the blues charts.
Not bad for what was once a side gig.
For Strong, Cummings’ new studio release number 11, he collaborates with award winning producer/drummer/songwriter Tom Hambridge on a dozen songs (ten originals/two covers) displaying the guitarist/singer/songwriter’s multiple talents. Unlike others in his genre, Cummings’ style is diverse enough to include more than the roof-raising rockers with rugged, raging guitar solos that wow ‘em on those large stages.
The strongest offerings here are not the crowd-pleasing, Vaughan-influenced ones like the opening power riffs and throbbing drums of “Emmylou” (the singer knows he should steer clear of a sexy waitress because “you get too close to her she’ll tear you apart”). Nor the swinging Texas shuffle and the unusually optimistic lyrics of “Looking Up” (“went into my job/found out I got a raise”). Rather Cummings is most effective on the slower burn, less strident songs that smolder instead of blaze.
There is nothing wrong with those more forceful tracks. When backing vocalist Wendy Moten chimes in on the rollicking “Fallen for You,” adding punchy Southern Delaney & Bonnie-styled soul to Cummings’ stinging guitar along with keyboardist/longtime Delbert McClinton associate Kevin McKendree’s pounding piano, the results are pretty great. But Cummings soars when he dials down the energy a few clicks, sweltering with a slow boil on the appropriately titled, swamp heavy “Let it Burn.” The folksy/country tinged ballad “Lately” brings rustic vibes to an emotional tune that implies the singer is suffering from the pain of a broken relationship (“I wish that I could make these memories fade”) before the tempo speeds up unexpectedly. It’s sharp songwriting and arranging with an execution many blues-rockers wouldn’t consider.
While a version of The Beatles “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” (generously called one of the band’s “classic hits” in the promotional notes) might not be entirely necessary, he fares far better on the album’s other cover, Jimmy Oden’s oft-performed “Going Down Slow.”
On this, the disc’s longest selection and centerpiece, Cummings tears into that iconic slow blues with the intensity and sorrow the lyrics– sung by a protagonist who is dying and wants to make amends to his estranged mother before passing– demand. Guitar fills jab and spar with McKendree’s piano like a prize fighter going for the kill as he sings with the passion of a man possessed. Or at least one who knows he doesn’t have long left.
It’s a master class in tense, terse playing that never pushes over the edge and shows how Cummings’ restraint is as impressive, perhaps more so, than the striking string-burning he’s also expert at.
Strong is proof, as if any more is needed this far into his commercially successful music career, that there’s no reason for the building artisan to return to his initial profession.
Pre-order Strong Here
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