Another incredibly fantastic “Story Tellers” type show at The Kent Stage this past Saturday evening. Albert Lee & Jeremy Clyde joined their talents for over an hour and one half of the best music and stories from their early days in the music business until now. Albert Lee told stories of playing with The Crickets, Emmylou Harris and The Hot Band, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, among others and playing with Jeremy Clyde.
At one point in the show, Albert Lee walked over to the grand piano and said he had learned to play piano before he learned to play guitar. He then said he wanted to play one of his favorite songs written by Jimmy Webb, “Highwayman”. It was an amazing cover of this infamous song.
Except for the few songs on piano, Lee and Clyde accompanied each other while playing their own songs, and songs from each other’s careers. Clyde told stories of the early days of Chad and Jeremy and when they once turned down a song by Paul Simon that was offered to them by their record company. It turned out to be “Homeward Bound” and he said they turned it down for a song of their own that promptly “bombed” on the charts.
Clyde featured songs from his “Bottom Drawer Session” that will be completed in the very near future and Albert has a new “Classics” album coming out this year.
What a joy it was watching these two just enjoying themselves playing with each other, having a laugh or two, and sounding fantastic. While they were playing a song, you literally could have heard “a pin drop” as the crowd did not want to miss a note. They did not take themselves too seriously, and just enjoyed a great night of music with their fans that braved a torrential downpour on their way into the show.
A surprise fan in the crowd was none other than Crankshaft writer/cartoonist Tom Batiuk (Funky Winkerbean). He and Dan Davis had been featuring Jeremy Clyde in the previous week’s comic strip that included a piece that included The Kent Stage marquee.
