Albert Collins’ “Backstroke”: A Journey Through Blues with Ronnie Earl’s Heartfelt Cover

ByRichard Orlando

Albert Collins – Backstroke

A two-fer – Collins’ original composition and a cover by Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters, recorded twenty-four years later (below).

Guitarist Albert Collins was born on October 01, 1932. Raised in Houston, Texas’ Third Ward, he was a contemporary of Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Johnny Copeland.

By age 18, he frequented Houston clubs listening to players such as T-Bone Walker, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and his cousin, Lightnin’ Hopkins. Soon enough, he was playing these clubs and honing his distinctive sound.

He cut his debut single, ‘The Freeze’ in 1958, and other low-temperature-titled instrumental singles followed, culminating in ‘Frosty’ in 1964, a number that would remain in his repertoire until his final shows.

The problem was that he still needed to work day jobs to support himself and his family, forcing him to only take short regional tours and play weekends until 1968 when with the help of Bob “The Bear” Hite, he signed with Imperial Records.

After Imperial, he was with the short-lived Tumbleweed Records, releasing two singles and an LP between 1971 and 1972. When the label folded in 1973, Collins was once again forced to find alternate means of support and was mainly working construction jobs before he signed to Alligator Records in 1978.

He released six LPs with the label between 1978 and 1987.

His fortunes seemed on the rise when he signed with Virgin Record’s Pointblank blues subsidiary in 1991, but he would succumb to liver cancer in late 1993, at the age of 61, denying him and the world the chance to see just how far he could have gone.

This instrumental was released as the B-side of a 1964 single on the Hall-Way label.

One of his more popular early numbers, it became something of a standard in Magic Sam’s repertoire and Ronnie Earl recorded it with his band The Broadcasters for his 1988 Black Top LP “Soul Searching”