Albert Collins Live From Austin TX

They called him the "The Ice Man" and "The Master of the Telecaster," but above all else, Albert Collins was a consummate Texas bluesman. He was born in the tiny east Texas town of Leona, but he grew up in the infamous inner city Third War of Houston, where he picked a little acoustic guitar around his cousin Lightnin' Hopkins and fellow future guitarists Johnny Copeland and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He cites John Lee Hooker as his major influence, who, along with T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown convinced the young Albert to go electric.
He was quick to develop his own sound, and by the mid 1950s he was playing Houston clubs with a 10-piece jump band called "The Rhythm Rockers." He soon cut a series of blues-funk instrumentals with names like The Freeze, Sno-Cone, Icy Blue, and De-Frost, finally hitting it big with a million-seller called Frosty.
"Ice Man" or not, Albert was on fire the night of his taping in 1991. "You just can't believe how long it took me to get on this show!" he declared, and wasted no time proving why it was long overdue. His performance was a wild ride, and the ACL stage proved too small for his antics, so with his long guitar chord in tow he took off into the audience during his ten-minute-plus finale of Frosty. He was first and foremost an entertainer, but nonetheless belongs up front in the pantheon of great blues guitarists. He awed at least two generations of young pickers, not the least of whom including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, who was quoted as saying back in the 60's, "There's one cat I'm still trying to get across to people... his name is Albert Collins...he's good...really good."
From the award-winning PBS "Austin City Limits" TV series, this performance, recorded live on October 28, 1991 in 5.1 surround sound, includes songs that were never aired on the original TV broadcast. It deliver "THe Icea Man" at his best and is the latest release in the acclaimed "Live from Austin, TX" series.