Andy Aledort What's New

What's Really New... guitarline

Andy Aledort appeared at the Mount Fuji Rock Festival with The Jimi Hendrix Experience July 31st & Aug 1st, 2004 with over 200,000 concert goers! Must Read Read Sensational Gig Update!!!

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Well, folks, a lot has happened since the last time I posted some news. So here goes. Last May, I started sitting in with the great Dickey Betts. The first gig was at Mulcahy's in Wantagh on Long Island, and I played the Allmans' tune "Southbound" and the old Robert Johnson song "Steady Rollin' Man." Dickey is great to play with; he gives me tons of room, is as generous and congenial as could be, and also loans me one of his 50-watt Marshall half-stacks to use. He gave me an open invite to play a few tunes whenever I can make a gig, and I am very grateful for his generosity. Dickey's band is killer and all of the guys are great Dan Toler on guitar, Mark Greenberg and Frankie Lombardi on drums, Chris Jenner on sax, Dave Stoltz on bass and Matt Zeiner on keyboards.

I played again with Dickey at Mulcahy's the next time he was there, plus the Talkhouse in Amagansett, Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey, and helped close the tour at B.B. King's in NYC. Each time is a gas. Dickey is playing better than ever it's great to hear him playing so incredibly. He's coming back in April and May of '03 so I hope to play with him again.

There was one Dickey gig at the Talkhouse last September that I had to miss because I went out to San Diego again to do another Jimi Hendrix Tribute at the three-day Street Scene Festival. Last year, I played with Double Trouble, Buddy Miles, Billy Cox, Los Lobos, Mike McCready, Andy Summers, Eric Gales and Kenny Olson. This past September, most of the same people were back, plus we had Slash, Mick Taylor, Stephen Stills, Robert Randolph, Living Color, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Mitch Mitchell, Dave Navarro, and Indigenous. That was really an amazing show what a blast. I played "Fire" with Navarro, Tommy Shannon and Mitch Mitchell. But rehearsal was the most fun, because I played "Dolly Dagger," "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," "Izabella" and "Freedom" with Mitch and Billy, and then "Purple Haze" and a few other songs with Chris Layton and Tommy.

In November, I flew out to Seattle to EMP (Experience Music Project) to play at Jimi Hendrixšs Sixtieth Birthday. The museum is a wild place, and they fit about 1200 in for the show. It was Buddy, Billy, Kenny, Eric, Mato from Indigenous and Sheldon Reynolds with some of the guys from Earth, Wind and Fire. The star of the show was Buddy Guy, and I played four tunes with him. That was a really fun night. And the Dungenous crab in Seattle is the best crab on the planet!

In January, the phone rang one Monday night and it was Joe Perry from Aerosmith. The next Aerosmith album will be a blues album, and he was calling to invite me up to Boston to work on some blues music and guitar stuff. He is a super-nice guy; we had a great time and played for about eight hours, covering all kinds of different styles. Plus it was fun just to hang out with him in his great studio. Hešs one cool dude. Išm looking forward to going back.

As of this writing, it looks like I'll be doing some playing with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater this year. Warren Haynes has always been very nice and supportive, and he invited me so it may be Tuesday, March 18th. Their new album. "Hittin' the Note," is fantastic their first studio record in nine years and itšs really great. Gregg's singing is amazing he sounds as good of not better than ever. And the band is sounding pretty incredible. Warren and Derek Trucks are two of the best guitar players out there today.

Išve also been working for a while with the Groove Kings on a new record. It's 99% original material and we have about two albums worth of stuff, so I will have to narrow it down plus I have new songs we havenšt even played yet! The band is Vito Luizzi on drums, Paul Apostolides on bass and Mike DiMeo on keyboards. But we still have a ways to go when one finances these things themselves, plus has a day job, it can take a while. It will definitely be done by the summer and we sincerely hope everyone will love it.

That's it for now. I'll be back with more updates soon.

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