Alberta Cross brings back old-school blues feel

by Thomas D. Mooney, entertainment editor

Call them whatever you choose. Place them in any genre of you want. Compare them to this, to that. Alberta Cross simply has heard it all.

“People are always going to compare us to something,” vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee recently told the Plainsman Press. “We really don’t have too much comment on it. We really wouldn’t be surprised if someone told us that we sounded like Madonna.”

“I take it all with a pinch of salt,” he later adds.

While the comparisons from critics across the United States and Europe haven’t been that far fetched, Cross has drawn comparisons ranging from British shoegazers My Bloody Valentine to  ‘60s folksters The Band.

Ericson Stakee’s vocals, in particular, have even been described as a cross between Neil Young and Oasis’s Liam Gallagher. Young and Gallagher don’t exactly have the same approach to singing by any means.

Alberta Cross was formed originally in England when bassist Terry Wolfers and Ericson Stakee met in an East London bar owned by  mutual friends.

“We always got free booze there, and we just kind of clicked,” says Ericson Stakee.

At the time, both Wolfers and Ericson Stakee were in other bands, but as Ericson Stakee puts it, “they just never really felt quite right.”

“I started to write some new songs, and Terry had a little home studio set up, and so we recorded a few things there, and we felt that we were on to something there,” Ericson Stakee adds.

These first songs would make up Alberta Cross’s first EP “The Thief & the Heartbreaker.” The seven-song release was made up of bluesy folk tunes that landed them some major publicity.

Soon after, Ericson Stakee and Wolfers decided that a change of scenery was much needed and moved the two-piece band to Brooklyn, New York. Since the move, Alberta Cross expanded into being a full five-piece, with the additions of lead guitarist Sam Kearney, keyboardist Alec Higgins and drummer Austin Beede. The addition of Kearney, Higgins, and Beede has given Alberta Cross a newer, rougher, heavier sound.

“Well, we have two guitarists now, so it’s definitely added some extra sound to the band,” explains Ericson Stakee. “I mean, we really didn’t have a certain mindset into making our next album heavier; it just happened that way.”

Their full-length debut album “Broken Side of Time” came out in September, and has been praised by critics as something new and fresh in music. The album was recorded in Austin with legendary producer Mike McCarthy.

“Broken Side of Time” is a collection of distorted power chords and haunting melodies.

Ericson Stakee’s sweet, high-pitched vocals are haunting. His vocals feel fragile, as though they might break at any moment, but they just grow into a bluesy monster.

At his core, Ericson Stakee is a bluesman in the fullest fashion. And if it’s one thing about bluesmen, it’s that they all tell the truth, no matter how cruel it may be.

“I don’t care what we are, as long as we are doing what we believe, and that we don’t change,” adds Ericson Stakee, “as long as it’s honest.” And is it ever.

On the acoustic number “Ghost of City Life,” Ericson Stakee wrote about all the scenesters in Brooklyn.

“The people you meet in the city. The hipsters, the scenesters, the urban posers, you know, that crowd,” he says, “I was just sick of all the fake people, sick of the city in general.”

Ericson Stakee writes about the real stuff around him, all the dark crevices, all the ins and outs, the highs and lows.

Since the beginning, Alberta Cross has been able to gain the attention of not only the common fan, but has even caught the eye of giant musicians.

Former Oasis founder Noel Gallagher actually called their label to see if they could open for them in England last year.

“Noel called and said that “The Thief & the Heartbreaker” was one of the best albums he’s heard in ages,” says Ericson Stakee. Adding “they’ve (Oasis) been really good to us.”

During the past year, Alberta Cross has been able to pick up steam by playing at major music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Coachella, and most recently, Austin City Limits.

“Bonnaroo this past summer was just so memorable,” says Ericson Stakee. “We really just had a great response from the crowd. They seemed to be into it. It was just fantastic.”

 Prior to playing at ACL, Cross played with Them Crooked Vultures. As Ericson Stakee says, “It’s not every day you get to play with Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones.”

While Alberta Cross may not like comparisons, they do remind of those great pasts. They certainly have a nostalgia that is very Led Zeppelin. Alberta Cross has that feel to them. While Ericson Stakee might not have the same howl as Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, he certainly isn’t too far off.

Add that to the bluesy, contorted guitars, and it’s easy to see why “Broken Side of Time” might be this generation’s “Led Zeppelin I.”

In all, Alberta Cross is just a band of constant candor and honesty. Ericson Stakee adds, “we all know there is a lot of (expletive) music out there. I think people are just desperate for real bands.”