It`s good news for blues lovers, and a surprise to industry insiders:
Albert Collins is scheduled to perform Saturday when the Alligator Records`
20th anniversary tour plays the Vic Theatre.
Collins, who is to join headliners Koko Taylor or Lonnie Brooks on stage, left the Chicago-based label in 1987 for a major-label deal with Virgin/Point Blank Records.
Last year, in an interview with the Tribune, Alligator President Bruce Iglauer said he felt ”burned” by the departure, saying the two had operated for a decade on a handshake agreement.
But according to Collins` manager, Hilton Weinberg, Iglauer invited and paid for Collins, who lives in Las Vegas, to fly in for Saturday`s
performance.
”It`s a sensitive subject, but there was never a falling-out between Albert and Bruce,” explains Ken Morton, an Alligator spokesman. ”Albert wanted to be part of the celebration.”
”It`s business, but it`s also a nice thing to do,” Weinberg says.
”Alligator was a big part of Albert`s success story.”
When Collins was signed by Iglauer in the `70s, the guitarist`s career was all but over. He went on to record seven albums with Alligator-only Taylor has recorded as many for the label-and emerged an international blues star. His 1985 collaboration with guitarists Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland,
”Showdown,” is the biggest selling of Alligator`s 120-plus releases.
Weinberg says, however, that there`s no chance Collins will return to Alligator and that the guitarist is satisfied with his multi-album deal with Virgin/Point Blank.
– Even without Collins, the Alligator tour would be something special. It`s actually the label`s 21st year, but it took a few months to coordinate the heavy touring schedules of Taylor, Brooks, Li`l Ed and the Blues Imperials, Elvin Bishop and Katie Webstor, each of whom will appear with their own bands Saturday.
The mobile blues festival is traveling in a single bus to 15 cities in 18 days, kicking off Friday in Grand Rapids, Mich.
– Anybody who saw last weekend`s performance by Chuck Berry at the Cubby Bear had to feel at least a twinge of sympathy for the three local musicians on stage with him.
Even sorrier was the sight of a fourth Chicagoan hired for the date-guitarist Jerry Lee Davidson-who was told just minutes before the show that he wasn`t needed. Berry, it seems, never plays with a second guitarist.
Then there was the plight of the opening act, pianist Johnnie Johnson, who came to Chicago anticipating a reunion with Berry, with whom he recorded numerous hits in the 1950s and `60s.
”Chuck don`t want me to play with him,” Johnson told one of the other musicians. ”Chuck`s that way sometimes.”
Chuck`s way is anybody`s guess. The rock `n` roll legend likes to travel light, and hasn`t performed with a regular group in decades. Nor does he bother to rehearse with the musicians he picks up, or clue them in about what songs he`ll perform or even what key he`ll be playing in.
Such was the daunting task that faced the three Berry disciples-pianist Steve Laxton, bassist John Pazdan and drummer Jeff Thomas-who wound up on stage with him at the Cubby Bear.
”He said two words to me offstage all night,” Laxton says. ”I introduced myself and said I`d be playing piano for him and he said, `No problem.` ”
Even though Berry scolded Thomas midway through during the first song, the guitar legend seemed reasonably pleased with the ”hired help” and made it through two 45-minute sets without further complaint.
”Jeff and I were sitting there after the first set with tension headaches like you wouldn`t believe,” says Pazdan, who can laugh about it now.
But the bassist says he agrees with the Rolling Stones` Keith Richards, who, at the end of the 60th birthday movie tribute to Berry, ”Hail! Hail!
Rock `n` Roll,” in 1987, said ”that playing with Chuck is the hardest thing he`s ever done, and that he`d do it again in a second.”
Laxton concurs: ”It was a great thrill-like a baseball player getting a chance to play with Babe Ruth.”
Both also agreed that the two shows had their share of stress.
”We were told he only plays in the keys of G, B flat and E flat, and then he started with something in the key of C,” Laxton says.
During the second set, Berry played many of the same songs-but again in different keys.
During ”Let It Rock,” even Berry became lost.
”He came over to me and said, `What am I singing?` ” Laxton says.
By midway through the second set, Pazdan says, a semblance of a groove had been achieved, and Berry reeled off an amazing guitar solo in the middle of ”Reelin` and Rockin`. ”
”It was like our reward,” the bassist says. ”He put one foot on the drum riser and gave us 24 bars of what he sounded like when he was 30 years old.”
– Metal bad boys Motley Crue, who have sold more than 20 million records and were recently re-signed to Elektra Records for $35 million, have fired singer Vince Neil and reportedly replaced him with Marq Torien, formerly of the BulletBoys and Ratt.
Neil, the only member of the quartet who didn`t write music, says he was fired because ”I didn`t share the enthusiasm for the band`s new musical direction. … When they brought in keyboards and more backup singers, I was disappointed.”
In other metal soap-opera news, Poison is-gasp!-booting guitarist C.C. DeVille, but isn`t-thank God!-breaking up, according to singer Bret Michaels. A new album from the multiplatinum band isn`t expected until next year.
– The sixth annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, takes place March 11 through 16, and as usual is a can`t-miss for fans of underground and roots music.
A $195 fee admits anyone to all conference events, including panel discussions and an opening address by Michelle Shocked. For those who just want music, wristbands for $25 provide entree to all participating clubs for four nights.
Among the highlights will be the first American concert appearance by Little Village, which includes John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner. Also scheduled to perform are the Fleshtones, L7, Dead Milkmen, Dave Alvin, Arc Angels, Spanic Boys, the Verlaines, the Skeletons, Santiago Jiminez Jr., Beat Farmers, Sin City Disciples, Blue Rodeo and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, among others.
For wristband credit-card reservations, call 800-966-7469. For more information about the conference, call 512-451-0754, or write South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, P.O. Box 4999, Austin, Texas 78765.
