Billy “Billy Bass” Alford

You may not know Billy Alford, not even by his nickname – coined by Johnny Winter and drummer “Uncle John Turner – Billy Bass. Growing up playin’ in honky tonks and juke joints in the barren oil fields of West Texas, Billy soon started to travel as a blues man, refined his finger-pickin’ style with Mance Lipscomb on his front porch in Navasota, subbed in John Lee Hooker’s band, played alongside Lightnin’ Hopkins and Freddie King and was a close friend of Stevie Ray Vaughan, with whom he even wrote songs.
In the summer of 1990, after the terrible accident that killed Stevie Ray, Billy “Billy Bass” Alford put his six strings to the side and walked away. He started a “normal” family life and his businesses. Now retired, Billy dusted off his guitars and began picking again and came full circle to his younger years, when he started as an acoustic country blues guitarist in the spirit of Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Johnson, and many others. Having recorded material for several albums that now await a release, Billy Bass is ready to share his music with the world as an elder blues man in the spirit of his idols.