Albert Lee

The song wasn't even written by Americans.

British musicians Albert Lee, Ray Smith, and Tony Colton wrote it.

So Ricky Skaggs took a British written song, brought his Kentucky bluegrass DNA to it, and turned it into a number one country hit.

Apparently, country music has always been an international operation.

Like he could clearly play.

And how did he learn to play? From his mentors like Albert Lee or one of his idols, Lightning Hopkins.

So he sought lineage from that continuation of how do I master the blues? And the thing that he did was he practiced.

And with guitar playing in particular, lots of people want to talk about speed and flash, but out of accuracy comes that speed and flash.

The band was an excellent band.

It had Albert Lee on guitar.

It had Pete Wingfield, fantastic.

session keyboard player it had Larry London a famous Nashville drummer and we cut the track pretty quickly and easily then it was decided we would reconvene in LA when this whole IBM thing was over and we would do the vocals okay so we get to LA studio in in Encino and I can't remember the name at the moment, but we get to LA and we've arranged so that Brian comes at noon and he's done in short order and the Beach Boys maybe arrive at two and the paths don't have to cross and everybody stays happy and calm and peaceful.

This is Rodney Crowell's 1978 release, Ain't Livin' Long Like This.

It has a bevy of wonderful songs that ended up being hits for other artists and guest musicians ranging from Albert Lee and James Burton to Rye Cooter and Dr. John and Willie Nelson and Mickey Raphael and Ricky Skeggs and on and on and on and on and on.

It's an incredible record and the focus of today's episode.

well hello friends and welcome to ask zach so yes today we're going to look at this is again part of our essential listening series and this is an album that's had a huge impact on me and one that i really love kind of hipping people to i love to uh be on a road trip or or uh you know be on a bus or be touring or whatever and and say hey have you ever heard the Rodney Crowell record ain't living long like this and uh everyone that's ever I've ever played it for you know became a fan and started listening to it so uh I love it and just wanted to talk about it today.

Talk about some of the guitar playing on there from James Burton and Albert Lee and Ry Cooter and all the other cats on there.

Yeah, and just talk about kind of its impact here.

even though it wasn't a big commercial success.

And so they offered Rodney a record deal and he did.

We went on late.

We didn't go on until 7.30 and Chris Farlow had turned up with the Thunderbirds with Albert Lee on guitar, as you know, fantastic.

And they got there early.

They'd driven up from London and they got there early and Chris Farlow saw me play.

Great.

I'm in.

So what was the line-up? So Albert Lee was still there, was he?

Yeah, Dave Greenslade was with Coliseum, famous.

oh

primarily because i loved ricky skaggs and chet and and you know from ricky skaggs i learned about albert lee i learned about danny gatton and vince gill and steve warner and all my country heroes right who

ended up becoming friends of yours

yeah and then and then of course my dad playing drums in the 60s of course i grew up with ventures records and i got to know nokia over the years But my point is, it was just remarkable that I loved The Ventures, but I loved all that country music side.

We're already, you know, got Petrucci.

They got Lukather.

They got Albert Lee.

They got.