Albert Lee & Hogan’s Heroes yesterday played a full two hour set at Berlin Club Quasimodo – what a joy. Attended by an audience mainly older than me (i’m 55 now) and partly as old as 70 year-old Lee himself (that grandma in the blue shirt was really rocking and dancing). Lee and his bandmates started some fast country-rockers, moved over to rockabilly (which seems to be the biggest musical influence to all band-members) and never let down. Some softer ballads in between, where Lee played a wonderful sounding Yamaha CP-70 and his keyboarder Gavin Povey showed his skills in singing.

Lee has the unique gift of playing his licks incredibly fast without ever letting us feel this. Even at the highest tempo (and this is a really really fast band) it always sounds, as if every note has to be that way – no tricks, no showmanship and no doodling. The most amazing moments of this gig were the parts, when the musicians took over in the middle of the verse, the piano continuing the ultra-fast lick Lee started with pedal-steel closing the Weiterlesen →