3 Years After

Ten Years After was a British blues-rock quartet consisting of Alvin Lee (born December 19, 1944, died March 6, 2013), guitar and vocals; Chick Churchill (born January 2, 1949), keyboards; Leo Lyons (born November 30, 1944) bass; and Ric Lee (born October 20, 1945), drums. The group was formed in 1967 and signed to Decca in England…

To mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Ten Years After album in 1967, Chrysalis records are releasing a very special box set – “The albums 1967 – 1974”. As the name suggests it includes the nine albums released in that time period, and it also contains a CD of previously unreleased material…

Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish…

Recorded live in a small London club, Undead contains the original "I'm Going Home," the song that brought Ten Years After its first blush of popularity following the Woodstock festival and film in which it was featured…

Few British guitarists have given themselves to the blues with the same tenacity and perseverance as Alvin Lee. What to many of his generation was still a received method, to Lee was an organically absorbed culture he completely assimilated in. And what others have later began moving away from – be it toward hard rock, pop, or jazz fusion – to him has always remained a constant source of self-fulfillment…

Watt had many of the same ingredients as its predecessor, Cricklewood Green, but wasn't nearly as well thought out. The band had obviously spent much time on the road, leaving little time for developing new material…

This superbly recorded double disc (the original engineer was Eddie Kramer, best-known for his work with Hendrix) captured over a weekend worth of dates in February 1970 at the venerable New York City venue catches the Brit boogie quartet at the peak of their powers. These shows were sandwiched between their triumphant Woodstock set and the release of Cricklewood Green, generally considered the band's best work. They find the group primed through years of roadwork, as well as obviously excited to be playing in front of an appreciative N.Y.C. crowd…