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Albert Cummings is a blues guitarist from Massachusetts. Albert is now performing shows with his All Star Rhythm Section featuring Grammy Winner Tommy Shannon and George Rains.
He is also a fourth generation builder. Albert Cummings started playing the five-string banjo at twelve but later switched to guitar. In his late twenties he formed a band, Swamp Yankee, and in 1999 released an independently produced CD. The trio spent just two hours in a studio to record the nine songs for the album. Albert Cummings debut recreated to perfection Stevie Ray Vaughan's style and tone on self-penned songs and blues standards.
His next recording was issued as a solo album with Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, known as Stevie Ray Vaughn's backing team DOUBLE TROUBLE. Serving as producers they also arranged a deal to ensure wider distribution. Only Tommy Shannon remained as bass player for the next album.
Two years later, in 2006, Cummings recorded a fourth album with new band members and allowed more country intonations in his music. In 2008, Albert released a live album recorded at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA.
Albert Cummings is now on tour as The Albert Cummings All-Star Band with Tommy Shannon (Stevie Ray Vaughan Band, Double Trouble, The Johnny Winter Group) and George Rains (Jimmie Vaught and the Tilt-o-Whirl Band).Tommy Shannon was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s musical partner for a decade, and gold records and Canadian platinum discs line the hallway.
"I'm so proud of these," says Shannon of the four Grammys sitting on the piano. “The most recent arrived in 1996---Best Blues Instrumental for SRV Shuffle, from a
televised tribute concert. Another commemorates the 1984 Monteux Pop Festival.
For the live recording of the evening, Blues Explosion, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Encores continue as the SRV legend grows. Vaughan justly provided Shannon points from album sales and even on merchandising---an extremely rare arrangement for "sidemen." And, like Vaughan, Tommy Shannon's ego remains modest in light of his legendary past, Shannon may indeed be a wonderful bassist, but his special place in music history boils down to the uncanny fact that he was in the right place at the most right of times. He was the primary bass player for both Johnny Winter and Vaughan---Texas' two most celebrated rock guitarists---during two distinct and
separate eras. Shannon accompanied both from obscurity into their prime---in the case of Vaughan, through his entire recording career.
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