That white guys can’t pay the blues, has now happily been put to bed. At least in music circles. That many of those legendary guys we all revere had hard times and had to take on other work to get by, has passed into folklore. Not least the tale of how The Rolling Stones met Muddy Water while he was painting ceilings at Chess Studios. It transpire Albert Cummings’ story is somewhat the reverse.

Coming from a long line of builders, when his father took ill, Albert took over the family business; turning into one that catered for high-end customer homes. You make that kind of money, music’s got to be just a pastime. His dad had played in a big band, semi-professionally, so it no doubt made sense. Only, Stevie Ray Vaughn’s old backing band, Double trouble, got to hear Cummings play and offered to work with him, the result being 2003’s From The Heart album and a change in focus career-wise.

Described as “a sonic exploration of life’s highs and lows, love and heartbreak, delivered with a raw and unapologetic intensity,” Cumming’s new album, Strong, was produced in Nashville, with Grammy award winning producer Tom Hambridge, and features a dozen songs with a live-in-the-moment feel to many of its blues-based tracks. Yet, while we find Cummings’ lead guitar work prone to an acute rawness and willing to veer into wild unexpected frenzies at any given moment, it’s his overall stance as a songwriter that impresses most; an observer of life he has a gift for relaying the plain and obvious in more poetical forms while able to able to narrate more complicated emotional trains-of-thought in a down-to-earth manner.

The album opens with ‘Emmylou’, one of two co-writes by Cummings and Hambridge. With a great whack of his guitar, Cummings follows through in vocal contrast with a sighing, tired regret to his delivery, but as he warms up in his recitation you realise that this musical ode to a waitress is indeed of praise to her, but dear Emmylou is also more than a handful. A sample of the rhyming couplets to be found being: “She’s got a tattoo on her right shoulder, it’s the picture of a broken heart, you get too close she’s gonna tear you apart.” Overall, it’s a loud old school rock and roller with some blues wrangling in there for good measure. He could well be continuing that tale on the swamp-side blues over a wailing guitar that stretches out to reach for the blistering sun on ‘Live Strong’.

Next up, is a repeated squeal of raw licks for the smooth walking, rough talking blues shouted delivery of ‘Lookin’ Up, and if we were to take this album is a chronological turn of events, the following ‘Fallen For You’ sees the guitarist in good spirits, if not on a high – It’s a wrangling country line dance rocker, where Cummings comes on vocally like a young Tom Jones with an unspecified lady joining him on vocals; the pair acting like a couple of cats on a hot tin roof, while the guitars make appropriate noises for such a situation. On ‘Let It Burn’, deep, precise guitar notes unravel with the kind of determined purpose previously not heard thus far, his voice grafted with emotion, alongside some atmospheric organ palying -Our previous assumptions that he’s a man to let things ride, now open to suspicion on this number.

‘Bad Reputation’ could well be another tale about Emmylou, but it’s more head-on musically, a four-to-the-floor fulsome rhythm section giving it some with Cummings guitar working itself up into a frenzy on this hard rocking blues, whose signature riff comes from the same place Aerosmith‘s ‘Uncle Salty’ did. I’ve seen a fair few different credits for blues standard ‘Goin’ Down Slow’, but the way I see it this is St. Louis Jimmy Oden’s song. That stated, I’ve tended to be indifferent to many previous renditions. This has some lovely piano playing, and a tremendous vocal delivery somewhere between Ray Charles and a more mellow Howlin’ Wolf, and that’s an odd one because on some songs Cummings actual voice isn’t anything special but on a few he really surprises you. Similarly, ‘Just About Enough’ where over an acoustic guitar with shimmering slide, he utters the deep-voiced refrain, “that boomerang you threw is coming back to you” as the first in a series lyrical retribution twists on turns-of-phrase, and as the electric guitars slowly gather weight and momentum they rain down with force as he sings, “Don’t forget who’ you’re talking to, I’ve had just about enough of you!” and you await it turning into some slow heavy weight Southern rock anthem, but we don’t in fact quite get the lengthy guitar soling instrumental section we might expect.

‘Get Busy’ has Cummings’ guitar hiccuping with a fun jive-jumping beat, dipping into the Cajun bayou, with a little bit of country, but swinging the blues all the way, as the man roars and rumble with a nuance to his voice somewhere between Elvis and Tom Jones. “One of these days I’m gonna catch that lucky break, in the meantime it’s time to get busy,” sings this working man. A fun dance track for sure. The last minute really shakes up the rock, with a deft rhythm guitar getting tough while the lead guitar whips out its fists to deliver the old one-two. Feeling like it’s from the same Stateside waters, but infinitely calmer, is ‘Lately’ the sweetest track on the record. Acoustics brim alongside a piano as a lead guitar pulls out anguished notes, the overall effect being of Waylon Jennings playing with The Allman Brothers or a doomier Doors doing a more authentic blues. Two minutes in, the drums hit a beat and we’re off at a steady gallop, and while the of the song is that things are looking good, the concluding line ends with “just not lately”.

That was the other Cummings and Hambridge number on this album, while a cover of The Beatles’ credited Lennon and McCartney song ‘Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?’ works less successfully for me. Sir Paul crafted his piano boogie original after seeing two monkeys copulating in India, but it was hardly social commentary on how we’re little different from the apes, more semi-amusing back then if you contemplated having sex on Abbey Road’s pelican crossing. Cummings delivers a trucking blues take on the number and there’s a bit of lively soloing in there, but it’s not an indispensable addition to the record. Not that redemption’s required, but ‘My Sister’s Guitar’ is a heartfelt autobiographical narrative for a sister who’s passed away. Acoustic strummed with the band gently shuffling round the edges, a nice reflective way to end the album on, not least because it finds him less focussed on his own feelings more recalling her and the strength she gave to others. I could well see this getting played at a few funerals, not morbidly but with fondness.

You might complain that the music itself is not complicated on Strong, but should the blues ever be? That a fair few stop suddenly may add to that live feel, but it also deflects from some numbers reaching cathartic climax, albeit those flying by the seats-of-your-pants and letting your fingers go where the volume takes you bits in between can be fun. Overall though, what I take away from this album is how strong a storyteller in song he can be.

• Reviewed by Paul H Birch.
• Strong is released via Ivy Music Company on 16th February 2024 (available here).
• Official Website

Track List:

1. Emmylou
2. Live Strong
3. Lookin’ Up
4. Fallen For You
5. Let It Burn
6. 6. Bad Reputation
7. Goin’ Down Slow
8. Just About Enough
9. Get Busy
10. Lately
11. Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?
12. My Sister’s Guitar