Texas Blues Guitar

John Lee Hooker’s 1949 hit, “Boogie Chillen,” was the
first tune Collins learned to play. Later he would be influenced
by T-Bone Walker and popular Houstonian Clarence
‘Gatemouth’ Brown, who convinced Collins to use a capo (or
clamp as he called it) to change keys. By 1952 Collins was
fronting an eight-piece band, the Rhythm Rockers, in Galveston.
Never sure of himself as a singer, Collins generally left the
vocal chores to someone else in his band. In 1954 he went on
tour with singer Piney Brown, and a fogged car windowshield
prompted a bass player to tell Collins, “Man, you better turn
the defrost on!” The remark stuck with Collins, who began
assigning ‘chilling’ titles to his instrumentals. 1958’s “Freeze”
on the Houston-based Kangaroo label was his wax debut, fol-
lowed by “Defrost“(1960, Great Scott) and “Frosty” (1963,
Hall). 1961 was the year of Freddie King’s success with “Hide
Away,” but Collins lacked King’s national label (King/Federal)
support, and despite some regional success with “Frosty,” his
instrumentals didn’t assuage the need to keep day jobs (truck
driving, mixing car paint) to pay the rent. (Collins’ 1963-
recordings appear on Truckin’ With Albert Collins, MCAD-
10423.)
His fortunes improved when collector-performer Bob Hite
of Canned Heat sought him out in Houston in 1967 when
Canned Heat was appearing on a bill with Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Lightnin’ took Hite to hear Collins at the Ponderosa Lounge
where his act (complete with audience stroll assisted by hun-
dred-foot guitar cord) so floored ‘the Bear’ that he urged Collins
to move to California and work the then-burgeoning Fillmore
circuit. Collins did just that, opening shows for the likes of
Fleetwood Mac and cutting three albums for Imperial in 1968-
69 (reissued on CD as Albert Collins: The Complete Imperial
Recordings, EMI CDP-7-96740-2). Signed by B.B. King's pro-
ducer Bill Szymczyk to his fledgling Tumbleweed label in 1971,
There’s Gotta Be a Change promised to be Collins’ career-
making record (it even put a single, “Get Your Business
Straight,’ into the national rhythm & blues chart). But the sud-
den demise of Tumbleweed left Collins without a label, and
for a number of years he worked West Coast clubs from San
Diego to Seattle, often backed by Robert Cray’s band. When
the opportunity to record for Alligator arose in 1978, Collins
was employed as a mixer in a paint store.
Twenty years after his recording debut, Collins was ready
and eager for a break and made the most of it. Had cancer