Ice Pickin
Until this album was released in 1978, Albert Collins had  been a journeyman  Texas bluesman, little known and unrecorded for six years. His  guitar playing  here won him a new generation of fans, and set the stage for the  popularity he  enjoyed until his death. His clustered, sustained, choked, and  bent notes,  played with his thumb and fingers, set a generation of pickers  agog. The tone  was piercing; the timing impeccable. Collins' vocals were never  quite as  strong, but it scarcely mattered as he was the man for whom the  electric  guitar might have been invented. The eight songs on this set  include "When the  Welfare Turns Its Back on You," and several jaw-dropping  instrumentals.--Colin Escott