He’s been called “a real deal guitarist, frontman and singer” (Guitar World), “an artist who doesn’t seem to have any limitations” (San Diego Troubadour) and “a virtuoso who’s become an unstoppable force” (Guitar Player). Over the course of 25+ years, 11 albums and thousands of shows, Albert Cummings has more than earned his reputation as a distinctively explosive performer. But Cummings is a renowned craftsman of more than just music: for over three decades, he’s also been a fourth-generation homebuilder and award-winning master carpenter. “There’s an essential commonality to both in that you've got to have your own voice,” he says. “You’ve got to be skilled enough to know how the bricks fit. And no matter what the job, always do it with passion.”

 

As a teenage bluegrass banjo player in his native New England – and after experiencing a lifechanging concert by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – it was that passion that compelled Cummings to switch to electric guitar and form the blues-rock band Swamp Yankee. In a twist straight out of a Hollywood movie, the group’s self-released 2000 record came to the attention of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton of Double Trouble, who would produce and perform on Cummings’ 2003 solo debut breakthrough album, From The Heart. “With every project,” Cummings explains, “what I do as a singer, songwriter and guitar player advances. Every album can be a mirror that says, ‘This is who I am.’”

 

Cummings and his Fender Strat have scorched international stages with artists that included Johnny Winter, Taj Mahal and as the longtime opening act for B.B. King. “B.B. and I used to sit and talk before shows,” Cummings remembers. “One night he said to me, ‘Albert, we’re performers. We're getting paid to go out there and entertain that audience. Plug in, let yourself go and take the audience with you.’ I’ve learned that the only way to play is to go to the edge of the cliff and jump. If audiences sense that you're giving your all, they’ll take the leap alongside you. As a performer, that's still the only place worth going.”

 

For the artist who still can’t be confined to one genre, Albert Cummings continues to build a career like no other. “I constantly ask myself, ‘How am I getting away with having this much fun?’,” he says. “Life is best when you’re doing what you love, and I’ve found the thing that makes me want to live forever.”