Albert Cummings – an Xperience Interview with Rob Smittix

Albert Cummings – Interview

AC: Hey how you doing Rob?

RRX: Great, so how have you been?

AC: I’m doing good! Looking forward to the Troy gig.

RRX: What I hear from my boss Art Fredette and his mentor in radio Jim Barrett is that it came full circle having you back and playing the Powers Park Concert Series in Troy August 26th (5:30pm). Years back you came with Swamp Yankee for the Uncle Sam Blues Jam. They couldn’t even remember what year that was because it was so long ago.

AC: I’m trying to think here, it was probably around ‘96 or something like that. Troy is literally where I first started playing. It’s the beginning of everything and where it all happened for me. When I hooked up with Double Trouble and the whole thing, it all started in Troy.

RRX: Awesome. I heard that you played acoustic shows at Positively 4th Street in their basement. You’ve come a long way.

AC: I did, I played electric shows in there too.

RRX: Nice.

AC: That was quite the little place.

RRX: When’s the last time you’ve been to Troy?

AC: I’m usually in Albany, I go through Troy, down Hoosick Street a lot but other than stopping in a restaurant or something you know? I don’t go there much other than just passing through.

RRX: It’s really come along, there’s a lot of happening stuff going on over there. We’re certainly happy to be a part of it and having you swinging on through to play. Vito has been putting on this series for 20 years now. He calls it his baby. This is the 20th anniversary of the Powers Park Concert Series. Rumor has it, he might retire after this one, so this could be the last one, at least under his belt.

AC: Right.

RRX: What’s been going on in your life? What have you been up to?

AC: I’m still building, right now I’m building my own house. That’s what I’m doing today. The music keeps growing and growing to the point where I can actually pursue it. I’m trying to find a balance and still be able to do it all, but music has really started to take a front seat for me. That’s what I’ve been looking forward to but until my boys were grown, I couldn’t do it. My boys are 27 and 22 and now they’re finally at an age now where they don’t care what I do. Early on when I first started to get some attention, I went out with BB King for six weeks one time and I came home and my youngest had grown half an inch and I noticed it. I was like nope, not missing it, so I kind of put it on hold and now it’s finally time for me to do my thing.

RRX: I totally get that. Somebody I know knew Aaron Lewis’s kid and this kid didn’t take to music at all because it reminded her that her Dad was always on the road and missed a lot of growth, like you were talking about. I mean going on the road with BB King had to be one of the best experiences of your life.

AC: It was incredible, some of the experiences that I’ve had are just mind-blowing. You grow up hearing all of these guys and guitar players and now I’m good friends with most of them. The only guy I haven’t met yet that I want to meet is Clapton. I’m sure I’ll get to him, but I haven’t risen up enough yet to get to his radar. You know what I mean?

RRX: Maybe we should knock him down a few levels and you can meet in the middle.

(Both Laugh)

AC: Yeah right, yeah! What the hell buddy?

RRX: It’s a wonderful thing to be able to make a living on music, it’s a very small percentage of people who can.

AC: It’s very small.

RRX: I like to say that I finally make my living on music, but it certainly isn’t my band that’s been around for almost 20 years, it’s this radio station and this magazine that we have that focuses on music that pays my bills. It still feels good to say that I make my living off of music.

AC: Well yeah, you’re still in the boat, you’re just in one of the different compartments that’s all.

RRX: Exactly. I didn’t go on the road with BB King or anything, but I’ve met almost everyone I’ve ever wanted to. Now I’m talking to you, so I can retire.

(Both Laugh)

AC: There you go. I just got back from Nashville a couple of weeks ago and I just finished another CD that’s even better than the last one “Ten”. I did it with a guy named Tom Hambridge, who I think has four or five Grammys under his belt but the recent Grammys; he’s kind of got his finger on the pulse of my style of music. He does a lot of stuff with Buddy Guy; he actually plays drums for him.

RRX: No Kidding.

AC: Buddy was in North Hampton last week or so, they invited me to come play with Buddy and I got to sit backstage with him and hang out. I learned how he met John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton. One on one listening to Buddy Guy tell me stories and getting to go play with him afterwards was just… what a night, it was so much fun.

RRX: I could imagine. I’m sure you have stories but then you meet people like that and the stories they have, it’s got to be surreal. But we all had to come up through the ranks, like you played smaller shows in the beginning and now finally the traction is moving. When did “Ten” come out?

AC: I think it was a year and a half ago, something like that. The new one will come out… I’m looking for probably February or around there. I try to keep it under two years I wish I could do an album every year but I just don’t have the time man. You’ve got to only have one career to do that.

RRX: Exactly. It’s not easy. Time is tough to come by.

AC: Where taking off for Europe on the 28th for three and a half weeks so were excited about that.

RRX: That’s very exciting.

AC: Italy, Romania, Ireland and UK.

RRX: It doesn’t get much better than that.

AC: It’s so much fun but I’m also grateful to be playing Troy again because that’s where it all began. Troy has a lot of dear memories for me, I’m really looking forward to the whole thing.