Alastair Greene

Alastair L. Greene (born April 18, 1971) is an American blues rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His debut album, A Little Wiser was released in 2001, the first of nine under his name over the next 20 years. Greene's guest appearances include those with Eric Burdon, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, Savoy Brown, John Németh and Debbie Davies. He has also performed and/or recorded with Alan Parsons, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, and Sugaray Rayford.

Life and career He was born in Santa Barbara, California, United States, and grew up intrigued by a combination of his mother's piano playing, plus the diverse record collection owned by both of his parents. However, it was his grandfather, Alfred "Chico" Alvarez, once of Stan Kenton's band in the 1940s and 1950s, who inspired Greene to pursue a musical career. In his youth, Greene took piano and saxophone lessons, but found that learning to play the guitar allowed him to partly emulate the type of heavy rock music he was listening to at the time, and to play with other like-minded students. His path towards the blues was assisted by his father's friend, who loaned Greene a few seminal blues recordings including B.B. King's Live at the Regal, Buddy Guy's A Man and the Blues, Johnny Winter's Second Winter, The Allman Brothers Band's At Fillmore East and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Couldn't Stand the Weather. A review for A Little Wiser stated that "Greene displays a monstrous ability for full-on blues-rock anthems. While some blues purists will no doubt chafe at his distorted Gibson bombast, those who prefer their blues amped up should be deafeningly pleased". Greene followed this with a live album, before a chance encounter led him to meet Alan Parsons, who invited Greene to play on the album, A Valid Path (2004). After a European tour with Parsons, Greene accepted an invite to fill in with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas for several live commitments. The second concert Greene undertook with them was opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd in Florida. Greene's commitments to the Alan Parsons Live Project lasted until 2017. An August 2013 concert performance in Medellín, Colombia, was released as the live album, Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, Live in Colombia, where Greene both played guitar throughout and sang on some of the tracks.

Free of other assignments, Greene signed to Rip Cat Records and released the studio album, Dream Train, in 2017. It gained a four star review and nomination for 'Best Album of the Year' in DownBeat magazine; To celebrate the 20th anniversary of forming his own band, Greene's latest album was recorded for Tab Benoit's Whiskey Bayou Records, having signed a recording contract with the label in 2019. The collection was co-arranged and co-produced with Benoit and consisted of 11 original songs. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Greene undertook a series of podcasts called "Throwdown Thursdays".

Discography Albums Year Title Record label Additional credits 2001 A Little Wiser Riatsala Music 2003 Official Bootleg: Live in L.A. Riatsala Music Alastair Greene Band 2009 Walking in Circles Riatsala Music Alastair Greene Band 2011 Through the Rain Leroi Records 2014 Trouble At Your Door Eclecto Groove Records Alastair Greene Band 2016 Now and Again Self-released Alastair Greene Band 2017 Dream Train Rip Cat Records 2018 Live From the 805 Rip Cat Records 2020 The New World Blues Whiskey Bayou Records 2023 Alive in the New World Whiskey Bayou Records