The Boston beat

Bosstones lose founding guitarist

by Dan Kennedy

For the second time in a little over a year and just the third time in the band's decade-and-a-half-long career, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have lost a founding member. Last week it was announced that guitarist Nate Albert will not be joining the band when they regroup to tour behind the Bosstones' fifth full-length studio album, Pay Attention (Island/Def Jam), currently scheduled for a May 5 release.

And after a brief but intensive search for a new guitarist, the Bosstones have already selected 29-year-old Lawrence Katz, an Atlanta native and former Berklee College of Music student who had spent the past couple of years in LA. There, he played with Fishbone drummer Fish in his project Khaleel, as well as with singer/songwriter Julian Coryell.

"We auditioned a bunch of people from Boston," Bosstones frontman Dicky Barrett explains, "and they were all good. But then our manager found Lawrence and he just nailed it. I mean, Nate really wrote the book on the ska-core thing. He invented that style. And everything the Bosstones achieved musically has come through us growing up together. So it's not like we could tell a new guitarist what to play, because we don't really know. It just worked with Nate, and a lot of that came from stuff we didn't say to each other. And the tough thing for the guitarist is figuring out what parts to play live so that it sounds as full as it does on the album, where Nate could do all kinds of studio overdubs. Lawrence just knew what to do."

Barrett says simply that Albert is departing for "personal" reasons, and that there are no bad feelings between him and the band. A report on the official Bosstones Web site explains that the guitarist is leaving to "continue as a student at Brown University, where he is in his senior year," and "to care for an ailing family member." Previously, in 1997, Albert had missed a month of touring, during which Shods frontman Kevin Stevenson was brought in as a temporary replacement.

Albert is the third founding Bosstone to throw in the towel. Back in 1998, the seven-man band lost saxophonist Kevin Lenear. He was replaced last year by Roman Flysher. And early on in their career, current drummer Joe Sirois was brought on to replace the departing Josh Dalsemer. "We've never fired anybody," Barrett says. "Bosstones just leave when they feel it's time for them to move on. I mean, I wish things were different with Nate because I love the guy, but it's his decision and we respect him for it."