“The blues is best served up live, with an enthusiastic audience and a killin’ band, and that’s exactly what guitarist Albert Cummings does[.]. Cummings effortlessly shifts from chimney subdued stylings to raucous roadhouse raunch to soaring yet stinging lead lines, driving his audience to frenzy in all the right places.” – Guitar Edge Magazine

Singer and blues-rock guitarist Albert Cummings and his trio will heat up the stage at Arena Theater with their sizzling blues, presented as part of the Blues on the Coast Series.

Backed by the excellent Warren Grant on drums and the equally accomplished Karl Allweier on bass, Cummings, a big man who, in jeans and a gimme cap, looks like the home builder he is, commands the stage and has the perfect voice for singing the blues.

But it’s his guitar work that sets him apart. His solos, especially in the classic “Walkin’ Blues” by Son House, are just as expressive as the song itself: beautiful, complex, inevitable. You can almost hear the guitar say words as he gives the solos the rhythm of impassioned dialogue.

At times he makes the guitar sound like a shrieking clarinet, or a growling baritone sax and his repertoire runs the gamut from old-style blues to rockabilly to boogie and rock ‘n’ roll, sliding from misery to celebration.

Tours and shows with blues legends B.B. King, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy and others brought his music to an audience grateful for the opportunity to be rocked hard by a man possessed to play every song like his life depended on it.

During his career Cummings has also shared the bill with Charlie Musselwhite, John Hammond, Susan Tedeschi, Tommy Castro, Chris Duarte, Bernard Allison, the Neville Brothers, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Sheryl Crow, and Duke Robillard.

“Albert Cummings has taken tradition and built his own musical edifice that expresses his thoughts and dreams. It is a vision that alternately excites and soothes while also clearly providing a glimpse of his unlimited future. The best is yet to come.” -albertcummings.com