Albert Lee - Awards, Accolades and Legacy

Awards, Accolades and Legacy

Lee has received many awards as a guitarist, winning five consecutive times Guitar Player magazine's "Best Country Guitarist". Lee is known within the music industry for his speed of playing and his technical virtuosity and yet by the same token, one of the most melodic, playing slower passages approximating the sound of the pedal steel guitar with his Music Man and Telecaster guitars which are equipped with B-Benders.

He is known as "the guitar player's guitar player". Lee is also referred to as "Mr. Telecaster". A long-time Telecaster player, Lee wrote a foreword to A.R. Duchossoir's book detailing the history of the instrument.

Albert Lee's song "Country Boy" helped to redefine country guitar for a whole generation of players, and was later to become a huge hit for multi-instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs.

Despite positive press from Melody Maker and New Musical Express, Lee has never achieved any great commercial success in terms of record sales during his career, but more as a live performer, session player and sideman, perhaps due to his self-effacing stage presence. Lee has been described by his peers who include Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore, as a complete gentleman who does not know the meaning of the word ego.

Emmylou Harris was told that she could only gain the backing of a major record label if she could assemble a really "Hot Band" signed to a major record label she needed to assemble a "Hot Band". After the death of Gram Parsons, Lee joined several luminaries who had previously backed Parsons including Rodney Crowell and James Burton. She said of him that Lee is "a brilliant guitar player. His sound is unmistakable—often emulated, never equalled. When Saint Peter asks me to chronicle my time down here on earth, I'll be able to say (with pride if that's allowed) that for a while I played rhythm guitar in a band with Albert Lee."