From his 1958 debut recording "The Freeze" through his 1962 instrumental hit "Frosty" for the Texas-based Hall label and a series of frigidly titled landmark albums for Alligator from 1978 to 1986, Collins parlayed his enduring icebox identity into international stardom.
Collins happened on his chilly gimmick by pure chance. "I played in Corpus Christi, Tex., and we was on our way home to Houston," he said in a 1978 interview. "My bass player, his name is Cooks.
"He said, 'Man, you better turn the defrost on!' It was during the wintertime, and the windows got all fogged up. I was riding along about two or three miles, and I said, 'Hmmm... Defrost!'
"And what I did, I said, 'Well, I'm going to do a song called "Freeze," and I'll do one called "Defrost.""
CORPUS GOLD NOTE: Wonder where his gig was?
It was indeed ironic that the blistering Texas guitar style of Albert Collins came to be identified with Arctic temperatures (his best-known recordings included "Frosty" and "Sno-Cone"), because a hotter electric blues guitarist has yet to exist.
"Albert was a unique force in the blues. There was not anybody before him that sounded much like him," says Alligator Records owner Bruce Iglauer, producer or co-producer of seven Collins albums (including "Showdown!" the incendiary 1985 Grammy-winning summit meeting of Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray).
The reverb-drenched icy fire that blazed deep within "the Master of the Telecaster's" playing first developed during the late 1940s and early '50s in the ghetto gin joints of Houston.
A cousin named Willow Young taught Collins the unusual minor key tunings that he steadfastly employed, while fellow Lone Star guitar great Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was influential in several ways, notably Collins' use of a capo (or clamp, as Albert referred to it) on his axe.
"After I got around Gatemouth, I got hooked on that clamp," said Collins in a 1983 interview. "It gave me a good sound.
"Gatemouth, he plays with his fingers and a pick. But I started out playing with just my fingers. I tried to use a pick, but I don't know, it seemed like it was a handicap to me," he said. Brown also inspired Collins to play the solid-body Fender Telecaster that came to define his image.
From a remembrance by Bill Dahl
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