Albert Collins: Master of the Telecaster (The Roots of the Blues)

For more than thirty years, Albert Collins built a fierce reputation in clubs and juke joints long before the wider world took notice.

Known as the Master of the Telecaster, Collins created one of the most distinctive sounds in blues: sharp, percussive and instantly recognisable. His unusual open tuning, bare-fingered attack, sliding capo and piercing electric tone produced music that felt both icy and incendiary.

Albert Collins: Master of the Telecaster traces his journey from Depression-era East Texas and the segregated clubs of Houston to international stages at Live Aid, the Grammy Awards and major blues festivals. It covers his formative years, his long struggle to make a living from music, his regional recordings, and the breakthrough that came with Alligator Records and the landmark album Ice Pickin'.

Along the way, the book explores his key recordings, his collaborations with musicians such as Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray and Gwendolyn Collins, and the band that became the Icebreakers.

This is the story of a guitarist who waited decades for recognition-but never lost his cool while waiting.

Part biography, part musical appreciation and part journey through the changing blues world of the twentieth century, Albert Collins: Master of the Telecaster celebrates the life, music and enduring influence of one of the coolest men ever to plug in a guitar.

Know the story. Hear the blues differently.

Simon Godfrey is a lifelong blues enthusiast and avid listener whose deep knowledge of the genre comes from decades spent following the music wherever it led. He now writes to put that knowledge into stories, researching each subject in depth so the history behind the music gets the same care as the music itself.

His work is written for blues fan, and curious newcomers alike, with one aim: to help readers discover and understand the music through deeply researched, engaging stories that connect the artists, songs, recordings, and influences that shaped the blues - so they can uncover forgotten treasures, understand why the music matters, and hear the blues in a whole new way.