not claimed him in 1993,
Collins would no doubt
still be making music as
powerful as that heard in
this video. “That tone,” ex-
claimed Joe Ely’s guitarist
David Grissom in the docu-
mentary, Further On Down
the Road. “There’s some-
thing about that tone that
just kills you. I like to think
of it like a Louisville Slug-
ger, a baseball bat. Some-
body hitting a home-run
and that bat crackin’. When
Albert hits the strings,
that’s what it reminds me
of.” Robert Cray recalled,
“Everyone who knew
Albert would say he had a
big heart, a great person-
ality...but when it came to playing the guitar, he had no mercy
on anyone—the guitarslinger!” Collins told Alan Govenar (Meet-
ing the Blues, Taylor Publishing Co., Dallas, TX.1988) : “I pick
with my thumb and first fingers, almost like playing a bass. I
never did play many chords. I always wanted to be a lead
player...Blues is my music. It’s kind of hard for some people to
relate when you say blues. Some people don’t want to hear it,
but it’s reality.”Photo by Tom Copi