Tony's Guitarist Picks - Buddy Guy

“He was for me what Elvis probably was for most other people.  My course was set and he was my pilot.” – Eric Clapton, on the occasion of Buddy Guy’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2005

Here it is another blog about another blues guitar legend.  Today’s subject – Buddy Guy.  Eric Clapton once called him the best guitar player alive.  Jimi Hendrix once said "Heaven is sitting at Buddy Guy's feet while listening to him play guitar."  When he was 13 he made his own guitar and taught himself how to play.  Buddy Guy moved to Chicago from Louisiana in the late 1950s.  Chess Records used him as a session guitarist for the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and many others.  For those blues icons he played the way those guys and his employers [Chess Records] wanted him to play.  But on his own his playing took on a different character.  His guitar playing is loud and aggressive.  He uses feedback and distortion.  He’d play guitar behind his back or with his teeth.  He would solo with total abandon.  His live shows were [and still are] incendiary.  Jimi Hendrix saw that and wanted to be Buddy Guy.    When he became known to the American rock listening public, the assumption was that Buddy Guy was copying Hendrix when it was really the other way around.  Eric Clapton got the idea for a blues-rock trio after seeing Buddy Guy’s trio perform in London in 1965.  He wanted to be like Buddy Guy with a singing, composing bass player.  That trio that Clapton wanted turned out to be Cream.  Buddy Guy has also influenced the likes of the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Stevie Ray Vaughan [RIP].  Without a doubt he is the bridge between blues and rock and roll.

As much as he has been revered by rock and blues musicians, for a long time after the 1960s Buddy Guy couldn’t get arrested.  He’d play his live shows with the same fury and abandon, but he couldn’t get a recording contract to save his life.  In the early 1990s he finally got a deal with Silvertone Records.  He’s recorded some fine albums with Silvertone.  His first three, Damn Right, I Got the Blues [1991], Feels Like Rain [1993] and Slippin’ In [1995] each earned him critical acclaim [Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album each time].  Heavy Love [1998] has more of a rock than a blues feel.  For the most part Buddy Guy’s output follows a formula – his albums are slickly-produced, feature guest appearances [Clapton, Beck, BB King, Bonnie Raitt, Jonny Lang, Mark Knopfler, Carlos Santana, Tracy Chapman, John Mayer, etc], and his on-stage intensity is dialed-down quite a bit.

Sweet Tea [2001] is not slick, not overproduced, and features no guest stars.  There’s no blatant attempt to win a cross-over audience.  This is Buddy’s homage to the hypnotic drone blues played by the likes of Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, CeDell Davis, and R.L. Burnside.  That’s the sound of the North Mississippi hill country.   That’s the sound of Fat Possum Records.  Recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, it’s “back to basics” for Buddy Guy.  For those wanting to hear Buddy Guy finally cut loose on an album, this is the one for you.  Unlike most of his studio output, Buddy dials up the intensity.  Buddy followed his most electrifying album with another atypical album, a completely acoustic folk blues album, Blues Singer [recorded in the same studio as Sweet Tea].  Blues Singer is an excellent counterpoint to Sweet Tea. 

Buddy Guy is an assassin.  Just ask the Rolling Stones.  He played Muddy Waters’ Champagne & Reefer with them for their Shine a Light documentary.  He didn’t pay any deference to them as others who shared the stage with them [Jack White and Christina Aguilera (?!?)] - he slayed them!  Keith smiled the whole time.  I could almost hear him thinking “thank you sir, may I have another?”  The Rolling Stones, despite all their pop success, is a blues band at heart, so they don’t mind it one bit when one of their musical heroes smacks them around on-stage.

Buddy has been around a very long time.  The work he did with Junior Wells [using the pseudonym “Friendly Chap”], most especially Hoodoo Man Blues [1965] and Play The Blues [1972], has been acclaimed by many as some of the finest Chicago-style blues you’ll ever hear. His 1968 album A Man and the Blues is essential.  Buddy’s most recent work [2008’s Skin Deep and 2010’s Living Proof] finds Buddy back in his comfort zone of Chicago blues.   These albums aren’t as intense as Sweet Tea, but they have more grit to them that his well-acclaimed 1990s output.  At 74 years old, they show Buddy Guy isn’t going away quietly anytime soon.  And because of that, the music world is a better place.  Buddy Guy is one of only a few blues giants left.  I hope he’s around quite a bit longer.