Builder/Bluesman Albert Cummings

Home building is one of the few industries not singing the blues lately. So what’s up with Albert Cummings?

The 34-year-old, fourth-generation home builder from Williamstown, Mass., says he spends 98% of his time building houses, but the rest of the time he’s a true bluesman, playing gigs of his own and opening for big-timers such as B.B. King and Sheryl Crow.

Like building, music is in his blood. His first love, like his father’s, was the acoustic sound of bluegrass. But once he heard the electrified blues of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, there was no going back.

Cummings’ break came a couple of years ago when he was asked to play with Double Trouble in Troy, N.Y. A few months later he and the band recorded From the Heart, an album of his songs, in Austin, Texas. A full schedule of his gigs can be found at www.albertcummings.com.

“People wonder how a white guy from Massachusetts can sing the blues so well,” Cummings quips. “But when I tell them that I am a contractor, they understand.”