carter albrecht, local dallas musican and keyboardist for edie brickell and new bohemians, was killed yesterday. here's the news story from dallasnews.com:


Dallas musician Carter Albrecht killed at neighbor's home

Gifted member of New Bohemians was mistaken for burglar

09:25 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 4, 2007

By TANYA EISERER and MIKE DANIEL / Staff Writers

The local music community was left stunned Monday by the fatal shooting of a keyboard and guitar player well-known in music circles.
[Click image for a larger version]
Albrecht

Police say Carter Albrecht, 34, beat up his girlfriend and then tried to kick in a neighbor's door in an apparent drunken rage. He died early Monday after being shot in the head by the neighbor, who thought he was a burglar.

Police said the girlfriend had bruises on her face but did not suffer serious injuries. The couple did not have a history of domestic violence, police said.

Mr. Albrecht was a guitarist and keyboardist best known for his work with the Dallas rock band Sorta, as well as with Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.



"He was my brother, he was my best friend, and my heart is completely broken right now," said Sorta bassist Danny Balis, who lived with Mr. Albrecht and added that people were "pouring in by the dozens" to offer condolences at their home.

"It's a sad day for Dallas music," local concert promoter Mike Snider said.

"He was a musical genius, a real prodigy – everything came to him naturally. He was an incredible instrumentalist – when he played, you could really see the joy he got out of playing."

According to police, Mr. Albrecht became drunk at a Greenville Avenue bar. His girlfriend drove him to her home in the 9000 block of Santa Clara Drive, just east of White Rock Lake, police said.

The girlfriend told police that Mr. Albrecht slammed a drinking glass on a table, cutting his hand. He then struck her in the face several times, knocking her to the floor about 4 a.m. Monday, a police report said.

After she ran outside, he followed, and she ran back in, locking Mr. Albrecht out, the report said. Mr. Albrecht then went to the back of a nearby neighbor's home, police said.

The neighbor told police "he was awakened when he heard his wife screaming that someone was breaking into the house." The man was kicking and banging at the door, and the homeowner yelled at him to stop.

When the man, later identified as Mr. Albrecht, didn't stop, the homeowner, who was armed with a handgun, "shot one time at the top of the door," the report said.

"He was trying to shoot over his head to scare him away," but Mr. Albrecht "is rather tall," said Sgt. Larry Lewis, a homicide supervisor, estimating the musician's height to be 6 feet 5.

A bullet struck Mr. Albrecht once in the head, and he died at the scene.

Police did not release the name of the homeowner. Investigators said the case will be referred to a grand jury to determine whether any charges will be filed.

A new law, nicknamed the "Castle doctrine," eliminates the requirement that someone has to retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves. The law already allowed a person to use deadly force to prevent someone from committing a break-in at night.

Mr. Albrecht's parents declined to comment on the events surrounding his death but did say that they had spoken to his girlfriend.

"She's a dear person," said the musician's mother, Judith Albrecht. "We've hugged and cried. I know they cared for each other a lot."

Mrs. Albrecht and her husband, who live in Plano, said they knew from an early age that their son had the makings of a gifted musician. Mrs. Albrecht began teaching him piano as a small child, and he later took lessons from a college professor while the family lived in Kansas.

"He had a wonderful ear," Mrs. Albrecht said.

"It just came natural to him. He had a way of making what was on the page come to life."

Their son attended Southern Methodist University on a music scholarship.

After graduating in 1995 from SMU, Mr. Albrecht was a pianist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He became involved in local pop and country music in the late 1990s, performing in bands such as the Limes and Sparrows before bassist Balis and others joined together in Sorta in 2000.

"He always wanted to have a band," said Kenneth Albrecht, his father. "Music was how he was going to make his living."

In 1999, he'd begun to perform with New Bohemians and was a full member by the time the band and Ms. Brickell issued its comeback CD, Stranger Things, in 2006.

"I always called him the real musician of the band, as far as New Bohemians goes," said New Bohemians guitarist Kenny Withrow. "He had an incredible ability to relate to people in general."

Mr. Albrecht also contributed to a number of significant local projects during his music career, including CDs by Travis Hopper, Salim Nourallah and Burden Brothers as well as regular sit-in roles that ranged from Mr. Nourallah's band to local Grateful Dead tribute act Dead Thing.

"Whoever was in the room would be blown away by his playing, with no exception," said Mr. Nourallah. "He was the best pianist I ever saw."

In 2003, Mr. Albrecht was named best songwriter and musician of the year by the Dallas Observer.

Mr. Nourallah and Mr. Albrecht's parents said he'd recently been working on a solo album.

"This solo record was jaw-droppingly beautiful and deep," Mr. Nourallah said. "Knowing that that album won't ever be done and the world won't hear it, it makes me sick."

Sorta's next album was also near completion, according to Carrie Garcia, the band's manager. But Mr. Balis and Sorta singer Trey Johnson expressed doubt about whether it will be completed.

"The things that sucks so bad about losing Carter was that he was the best, out of all of us. He was so much better than all of us," said Mr. Balis.

wow
such a shock
not that i was familiar with his face or anything
but shocking
i'm sure you're saddened

it's much worse than we thought. danny, his best friend and sorta band member wrote this on his blog:


there is no question; were he here right now, he would think this is totally fucking gay, and i would never hear the end of it.

i found out this morning at 7:00 that my best friend was probably dead. i got the call from his girlfriend as she was being taken to the police station to be interviewed, as she saw the coroner's van and a stretcher with a covered body being loaded into it as the cops drove her from the neighborhood. about an hour and a half later, she confirmed it. my brother, bandmate, roommate, and the closest friend i have ever known had been shot to death earlier at 4:07 a.m.

we've all read the updated story in the dallas morning news, and it seems pretty accurate, according to the play-by-play of events she gave me throughout the night. what we don't know is why he ended up at the next door neighbor's back door, banging and kicking it at 4:06. nor do we know why carter acted out with his girlfriend in a manner that i have never seen in my near-ten years of friendship with him.

this was not the carter albrecht i knew. the police report failed to mention that for the previous week, he and his girlfriend were trying quit smoking with the prescription drug, "chantix". they had both started the program at the same time, and had been on it for a week. monday was supposed to be their quit day. carter had not slept much the night before, and had consumed approximately five cocktails in a two hour period on sunday eve. this was not unusual, as carter had a very good tolerance for the drink. chantix does clearly state on the box that it's drowsy effects could be intensified by alcohol. the two also complained of having crazy, insane, almost horrific dreams that week. they jokingly referred to them as "chantix dreams" when comparing them. i later learned through a close friend that he had firsthand knowledge of two separate couples who had tried to quit smoking using chantix, and in each case, one spouse had tried to kill the other with no previous domestic conflct. one was successful, and many refer to this drug as a psychotic.

was it a combination of sleep deprivation, booze, and the stop-smoking pills that sent him off? it's the only explanation i can even think of. what was described to me sounded like a walking black out. in my years of knowing him, and all the girls he dated, i have never once heard of him getting abusive or physical with them. it was not his character. especially with the woman that i know for a fact he loved dearly. unfortunately, the morning news story paints him as a batterer to the casual reader that did not know him. this, he was undeniably not.

so why banging on the next door neighbor's back door? who knows. same waking black out state? confusion thinking he was knocking on his girlfriend's door? this we will never know. any other explanation just doesn't add up.

what i can tell you about carter is that he was the best musician i have ever played with. it may sound trite, but it was an honor to play music with him, create and record with him, laugh and joke with him, for the better part of the last ten years. he was a unique musician. i don't think enough people got to hear him. not only was he the backbone of sorta, playing keys and innovative guitar, he was my favorite solo artist/bandleader i've seen closely. if you got him, you got him. he was one of a kind. a dylan. an elliott smith. he had "it". that extra something that set him apart from basically everyone else. i often joked with him that no one would really appreciate him until he died. his soulful, yet punk voice...his genius lyrics that were probably above the heads of most. and his playing. wow. today, when dozens of musicians gathered at our house, trying to make sense of this mess, i said more than once that "the thing that's so wasteful about him being gone, is that he was better than all of us." if anyone was going to save music in the dallas scene, it was him.

he had many opportunities to go to new york, LA, and could have played sideman to anyone. but he chose to stay in dallas, where his family lived, his friends played, and his loyalty was rooted. he was a character-driven slave to honesty. and i learned alot about being truthful and up-front from him. you could hear it in his voice, his words, in the general way he carried himself. he was the real deal. most of the rest of us were just poseurs next to him.

he meant the world to me. i will never see him again on this earth, and i am heartbroken from it. i can't think about tomorrow because he is supposed to be there. he is supposed to be playing his piano in the dining room, or watching the rangers while eating some crap from a greenville fast-food place. we are supposed to talk about the goofy stuff that happened on the hardline that day. we are supposed to talk about books (usually a one-sided conversation with me on the short side) and the mavs and girls and music.

but my best friend isn't here anymore. and i honestly don't know what to do.

i guess the only thing left to do, is let everyone in on something you may not have known. carter was a very intelligent guy. smart as hell. borderline genius. so my final dig on my buddy is this...the last movie he watched was "snakes on a plane". well, to his credit, he didn't watch all of it. love you, buddy.



the whole story is so very sad and tragic. many musicians have come and gone, but this will be one of the saddest losses for the way it turned out.