Alberta Cross featured at Telluride Blues & Brews

15 Sep Alberta Cross featured at Telluride Blues & Brews

[Susan speaks with Petter Ericson Stakee of Alberta Cross, click “Play”]

“Roots-rock grit meets Brit-pop grandeur,” Rolling Stone

Alberta Cross is part of the line-up for the 17th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, keeping good company with the likes of B.B. King, George Thorogood, Jimmie Vaughan, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi.

Alberta Cross is a New York-based band known for a British spin on Southern rock. Its dramatic sound has been compared to Kings of Leon, The Band, Neil Young, The Raconteurs and other blues-influenced rockers, salt and peppered with the dark riffs of bands like Pink Floyd.

Two different worlds collided when Stakee and Wolfers met. Petter traveled from an early age between Sweden and England with his singer-songwriter father. Terry was brought up in London’s rough and ready East End. Bored with the London scene and in need of a shot of adrenaline, Stakee and Wolfers moved across the pond to New York, where they immediately created a buzz, playing acoustic shows at venues such as The Living Room, en route to capturing a new deal with ATO Records. Seeking to create more of a band vibe—“and we wanted it to be a family,” says Wolfers—they added Beede, Higgins and Kearney and a louder, grittier sound was born.

Alberta Cross has toured extensively through the U.K., sharing the stage with Oasis, The Shins, Bat for Lashes and Simian Mobile Disco, among others.

 “If we weren’t playing for people every night, we would be going mad.” Stakee says. Adds Wolfers, “We do it, because we have to.”

Alberta Cross launched a month-long, cross-country tour on September 6 with Dead Confederate, also on the 2010 Blues & Brews schedule.