Albert Collins - Ice Pickin
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CD Details
Artist: Albert CollinsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Alligator Records
Soundtracks:
- Honey, Hush! (Talking Woman Blues)
- When The Welfare Turns Its Back On You
- Ice Pick
- Cold, Cold Feeling
- Too Tired
- Master Charge
- Conversation With Collins
- Avalanche
Music reviews of Ice Pickin
Music Review: The Very Real Deal
Rating: 5 Stars
I absolutely love AC and think he's by far the most neglected of the electric bluesmen. Sure, he gets mentioned, but his truly unique approach and completely personal sound sets him far apart from all of the other masters.
I really enjoy his jumpin' 60s instrumentals, but even those couldn't prepare one for the onslaught of funky power and unequalled humor here. Not many musicans ever played this well yet took things with this much bonhomie. Collins' distinct sound came from capoing his Tele at the 9th fret to give him a C# minor 6th tonality, along with his wild all-fingers attack on the strings, a thoroughly unique marriage. Such amazing tone! No nickname is more apt, though the Iceman also has moments of deep warmth.
This, his first album for Bruce Iglauer's wonderful Alligator records (take a bow, Bruce, for bringing so many masters back to the spotlight), is still to my ears Albert's best. The sound is superb, the vibe completely relaxed yet grooving like mad, and it features his best band. There's not a weak cut here, and the best of them are classics. The slow blues Cold Cold Feeling shows him laying out and making it happen; he had the goods. I particularly love the two that are about Albert's wife, Master Charge and Conversations. These are just flat out hilarious, as well as featuring some really sweet pickin'. Conversation has some fine licks and along with Ice Pick ups the already solid funk quotient here. Collins was in fact a funk master as well as a blues master, as his 1991 release Iceman shows quite clearly.
I had the tremendous good fortune to see him live in 1982 at a small blues club, with this same band. A friend took me to see the opener, John Hammond, and got there way early to get us the very best seat, a table right in front of center stage. Hammond was excellent and I thought, well, not much will top that. Ho ho ho! Collins came out with that grin, plugged in, and from that first stinging note my mouth just dropped open. It was a tiny stage and they were all jammed onto it, with the very tall A.C. Reed taking up the most room. Man, could he blow that horn. (He is also very happenin' on Ice Pickin').
But the real revelation, in the true sense of the word, was Collins. I was about eight feet dead in front of his amp, and my ears will never be the same. That TONE! Never heard anything like it before or since, and I've seen almost every blues great who was around from 1980 on. Insanely stinging yet always musical, and so in the groove. He absolutely led the band and the room, large and in charge, and the boys were with him every step of the way. Funky as hell and clear as a bell. We sat literally at Albert's feet and were treated to two hours of some of the best music I've ever heard, of any genre. He was also hilarious and had about as much fun on stage as is legal. His singing was excellent, as on this record, and though his range is limited he conveyed all the emotion he needed to, with a wry sense of timing that was all his own. What I wouldn't give to go back to that night. I saw him a few times after, but he never matched that performance. Not many men could.
Ice Pickin' shows exactly how relaxed yet aggressive Collins could be, and features nothing but good tunes, nary a clunker to be found, a rare thing for a blues lp. It's still one of my favorite blues albums and gets played often. It always gets me rockin' and makes me smile. Hard to ask more than that.
Albert Collins. They only made one.
Description of Ice Pickin
Limited Edition Japanese pressing of this album comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 2007.Until this album was released in 1978, Albert Collins had been a journeyman Texas bluesman, little known and unrecorded for six years. His guitar playing here won him a new generation of fans, and set the stage for the popularity he enjoyed until his death. His clustered, sustained, choked, and bent notes, played with his thumb and fingers, set a generation of pickers agog. The tone was piercing; the timing impeccable. Collins' vocals were never quite as strong, but it scarcely mattered as he was the man for whom the electric guitar might have been invented. The eight songs on this set include "When the Welfare Turns Its Back on You," and several jaw-dropping instrumentals. --Colin Escott
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