Albert Collins didn't use a pick. He played a Telecaster with his thumb and fingers, capoed way up the neck, and got a tone so sharp, so cold, so clean that they called him the Iceman. Frosty is instrumental blues perfection -- a Telecaster cutting through the mix like a shard of ice.

He was a cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins, but he forged his own path -- from Houston blues clubs to Alligator Records in Chicago, where he became one of the label's biggest stars. His live shows were legendary: Albert walking through the crowd with a hundred-foot guitar cord, the Telecaster still screaming, the audience parting around him like he was Moses with a Fender amp.

He won a Grammy, collaborated with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland on the album Showdown!, and mentored a generation of blues guitarists. The Iceman played his last show in 1993, dying of cancer at 61. The Telecaster with the capo on the seventh fret is in a museum now. The tone is still cold enough to freeze a room.

Albert Collins played a Telecaster with his thumb, capoed way up the neck, and got a tone so cold they called him the Iceman. Frosty. Walked through the crowd with a hundred-foot cord.