Cover photo © 2024 Laura Carbone
People would likely assume that musicians and those who build houses have very different talents. However, both artistic creativity and constructional abilities tend to be attributed to the right hemisphere of the brain, and Massachusetts-based guitarist/singer/songwriter Albert Cummings (who also owns a homebuilding company) sees other similarities as well. Blues Blast Magazine had the opportunity to catch up with Cummings and hear that perspective while he was performing on the 40th Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise.
“When you build a house, you dig the surface and pour the footings, and that’s like the bass and drums in a song–It establishes the foundation. You then put the guitar on it, and maybe the keys which is like building up from the foundation. Maybe you want horns in it, and that’s like the dry wall. Then you hand it over to the mixing engineers, which are like painters. They apply the final colors and fine finishing touches that go on the project.”
In fact, Cummings is the fourth generation of builders in his family, and second generation of musician/builders. While he is self-taught as a musician, he holds an AA degree in construction science from the Wentworth Institute in Boston.
“My father was a musician until the time I was born, but he was also a builder. He played in big bands but gave it up around the time I was born and focused on building. However, his band members remained friends, so if there was a party or a picnic, the band would get together. If children of band members got married, they had no choice as to what band would play.”
Cummings didn’t start on guitar or even the blues. Instead, his first musical efforts were playing country and bluegrass music on the banjo. And, at times, the country influence can still be heard in some of his songs.
“My hands couldn’t fit around the guitar, but then a friend of my father’s gave me a banjo and said try this out. I got one of those Bill Blalock Learn How to Play the Banjo books, where you teach yourself. My influences at the time were Hank Williams Jr. and Merle Haggard. Later I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan play and one night in Boston I saw a bus with a Les Paul and Stratocaster painted on it and read the marquee and it was Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble. I remember walking out of the show saying, ‘goodbye banjo’. I switched to guitar and took one lesson, but that was a waste. It wasn’t teaching me what I wanted to learn, so I taught myself. If you teach yourself, you tend to become your own thing instead of learning other’s bad habits. And the blues seemed to find me. I would say that about 85 percent of my crowd don’t even know they are blues fans. They tell me they didn’t know they loved the blues until now. That’s what I’m bringing. We all are different. We all have our own DNA and the only thing I can do is be honest about who I am. That’s literally what I’m trying to do. The blues in me is deep, but I’ve got country in me and bluegrass too. Why should I hide that? My crowds like it because I’m letting them have something unique.”
“To me there are two types of musicians. There are creators and performers. The performers perform what the creators created. Ninety-eight percent are performers instead of creators. It’s hard to be a creator, but I don’t want to be a performer–I want to be a creator. To do that you have to have your own road, and maybe sometimes there is no road—just woods and you must navigate through the woods without even a trail. If you are unique to yourself, nobody can compete with you.”
Cummings is also known as a talented and powerful singer, but he didn’t always realize that he had vocal abilities, as he had been told by his father that he was not a good singer.
“After college I joined the National Guard and basic training was where I learned to sing. They tried me out marching new recruits to see if I could lead the troops. I started singing the call-and-response while we marched, and all the guys in the platoon got motivated. Right after that, they pinned the platoon leader on me and that’s what I became for the remainder of the time. One of the coolest things was when we graduated from basic training, I marched out 120 guys and parked them in a ceremony.”
Cummings started writing songs at the age of nineteen but didn’t begin to play professionally until his late twenties, However, shortly after that he was soon sharing stages with guitar masters such as BB King, Buddy Guy, and Johnny Winter. He noted that he had a special admiration for BB King.
“I have overwhelming respect for BB King. He was such a beautiful human being. He was the same person on the stage as he was off. He was kind and sweet. The stuff he went through should make my life seem simple. He went through segregation, playing in venues where he couldn’t use the bathroom. That makes me sick, but he was still BB King. You just felt good around him. He spread love. If you were the opening band, you had to be the last one to meet him at the end of the night after the show. The paying customers came first. Sometimes I would stand 2-3 hours in line, and it was worth it every time. He cared about people. I try to be that guy—I am the same on and off the stage. I’m happy on the stage and happy off the stage.”
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm section (known as Double Trouble) produced and backed Cummings on his debut album in 2003, From the Heart. He has since released nine additional albums (with one due to be released soon). He also recorded an instructional DVD for the Hal Leonard Corporation, titled Working Man Blues Guitar. His 2022 release, Ten, was recorded in Peter Frampton’s Phenix Studios in Nashville with engineer/producer Chuck Ainlay and earned critical acclaim. It featured Vince Gill on one track.
“Chuck knew Vince really well and he mentioned that he thought Vince would be really good on the track. I asked, ‘Vince who?’ When I found out that he was talking about Vince Gill, it was another ‘pinch me’ moment.”
Perhaps the best-known track on that album is “Too Old to Grow Up Now,” which seems to be a tribute to his fun-loving spirit. The other musicians on that album were not his usual touring band, and he was asked how that occurred.
“Producers usually have their own team—they speak the same language. It’s a totally different scene from touring, doing an album. I understand that from a building perspective. You don’t have the drywaller do the concrete work.”
Cummings has toured for many years with the same drummer, Warren Grant, but often has different bass players. He is known for being the bandleader of power trios, but recently has strayed from that model.
“I’m not easy to play with because I don’t stick to form. I don’t use a playlist and go off script, doing different tempos and song within songs, etc. For a long time, I had trouble finding bass players but now I’m having unbelievable bass players playing with me and am enjoying the positive energy they bring. I have also added keys for the first time. Kevin McKendree was Delbert’s player for thirty years and he adds a whole new element. I would like to work towards a second guitar and background singers too.”
Cummings’ next album, Strong, was just released on February 16, 2024, and is produced by Grammy Award winner, Tom Hambridge. With the exception of “Goin’ Down Slow”, and a bluesy version of Lennon & McCartney’s song, “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road,” it contains all original tracks. He noted that Ten exposed a bit more of himself personally, but Strong is even more deeply personal, with some very emotional lyrics. One of the most powerful songs, (which is already getting a strongly positive response from audiences), is the song “Let it Burn”.
“It’s about not being able to change anyone else’s mind. You can’t make them see things that they are too blind to see, so it’s saying if you want to burn it down, I’ll help you. ‘My Sister’s Guitar’ is also a very deep song for me and is written for my sister who passed away four years ago. She was my best friend and my ‘best man’ at my wedding. I wrote that after my brother-in-law brought a guitar case out the day after my sister died and said it was my sister’s guitar, and that it was for me. I haven’t tried to sing that one for an audience yet. That will be hard. I’m literally xposing the full belly with these songs.”
Cummings noted that it took many years for people in the music industry to take him seriously, since he had the building company and did not tour much while his two sons were very young.
“I think the industry, agents and promoters thought, ‘He’s a builder, not a musician. Why would we take him on?’ They thought I was a hobbyist. I don’t blame them for that. They couldn’t possibly know the passion inside of me. Also, one day I came home from being gone six weeks touring in support of BB King. I had left my little guy who was four or five at the time, and when I came back, I noticed he had grown, and I thought ‘I’m not going to be out there—they need their dad more than I need that.’ But now they are old enough, at twenty-three and twenty-eight. So, I’m ready to go kill it! And, I have learned to love criticism, because when the criticism comes, you know you are going up. Nobody picks on someone who isn’t rising up. I can’t stand the word ‘hate’ though. I don’t want people who bring hate bumping up into my wall of love that is around me. I’m happy to say that I’m feeling accepted on this cruise. People are coming up to me and relating to me in a different way than before. I’ve never felt love like I have felt on this cruise. I feel like I can conquer the world!”
You can learn more about Albert Cummings’ unique and intensely soulful combination of blues and rock, with the hint of country music at https://www.albertcummings.com.
