Print“Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” Jimi Hendrix
On September 25, 1957, George “Buddy” Guy boarded a train in Hammond, Louisiana with a one-way ticket for Chicago in his hand. He was about to leave the only world that he knew, a world that began on a sharecropping plantation near Lettsworth, Louisiana, where he was born on July 30, 1936. Later, in Baton Rouge, Guy would work pumping gas and as a custodian at Louisiana State University while playing with John “Big Poppa” Tilley and sharing stages with Lightnin’ Slim, Raful Neal and Slim Harpo. But now, the lure of Chicago, a better paying day job and a chance to meet Muddy Waters and other great blues men was irresistible.
The reality of the Windy City was cold and stark. Broke and hungry, Guy was on the verge of returning home when he finally got the opportunity to show what he could do at the renowned 708 Club. “It wasn’t that I was outplaying those guys,” he confesses. “I was a little more exciting, I guess.” Word spread quickly about this outrageous new talent. Muddy Waters arrived in a red Chevrolet station wagon. The two met over salami sandwiches.
Guy was on his way, recording some sides for Cobra Records before moving to Chess in 1960. For the next seven years, he was the in-house session man at Chess his choice guitar contributing immensely to landmark tracks by the legends of the genre – Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Howlin’ Wolf and many more.
Guy continued to record during the 1970s, the most memorable moments with long-time collaborator and harmonica master, Junior Wells. Career in decline, the 1980s were painful. “I didn’t record for nearly fifteen years because everyone was ignoring me,” Guy recalls.
His renaissance began in 1990, when friend and admirer Eric Clapton recruited Guy to perform with him at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. “I got such great reviews that the British guy working for Silvertone Records came in and signed me,” he says. Guy’s first three releases on the label, Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (1991), Feels Like Rain (1993) and Slippin’ In (1994) all won Grammy Awards. As the new century dawned, Guy reinvented himself with the juke-joint rawness of Sweet Tea (2001), the all-acoustic Blues Singer (2003) and the star-studded guest fests of Bring ‘Em In (2005) and Skin Deep (2008).
A multiple Grammy Award winner, recipient of a record setting twenty nine Blues Music Awards, a member of both the Blues Hall of Fame (1985) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2005) and conservatively ranked #30 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, it would be impossible to overstate the contribution that Buddy Guy has made to contemporary music. Historically, he spans the gap between blues and rock ‘n’ roll, Muddy Waters and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Guy literally redefined the role of the guitar by using volume, distortion and sustain effects to make the solo the ultimate emotional statement long before Hendrix, Clapton, Page and countless others made the practice common place. And while he is credited with being one of the principal architects of the Chicago blues sound, Guy invariably lurches out of the ordinary with unpredictable jolts of avant garde rock and free-form jazz grinning impishly from ear to ear the whole time.
Today, Guy reigns supreme as the king of his Chicago blues domain. A benevolent ruler, he expresses his everlasting gratitude to those who blazed trail and gave him a chance by setting aside open jam nights for up-and-coming performers at his successful Legends club.
This past February, Guy won his sixth Grammy Award for his latest CD, the most appropriately titled Living Proof. Somewhat autobiographical and introspective, he reflects on mortality, battles won and lost, travelling the world, drinking wine with kings and the Rolling Stones.
Guy has been at the pinnacle of the blues for so long that, like all good things in life, it is all too easy to take him for granted, to forget not just how great he was but what a titanic talent he continues to be. That is, until he steps on stage. That’s when the ferocious mania of his attack, his harrowing rapid-fire fret work and tortured discordant vocals will confirm what fans have always known in their hearts. Damn right, Buddy Guy is the Blues! www.buddyguy.net
Ken Wright
