Great to see this recent write-up about Buddy Guy’s impressive headline show at the Aurora IL blues festival held earlier this year…not only is he making his 74-years look like a 40-year old, one could argue that Buddy’s brand of Chicago blues gets better with age.
3 Things You Are Guaranteed At Any Buddy Guy show:
1. You’ll never hear a song done the same. I remember 2-years ago here at the Ottawa Blues Festival when he launched into a rendition of “Damn Write I Got The Blues” that he kept so low down and dirty and then rocked out in the last few lines…completely different than I had heard him done at other shows and on his same titled CD. That’s what keeps us going to see Guy again and again is that we know when his genius and passion for the guitar meld with his creativity and fearlessness we get to witness greatness…you never know what to expect and that is amazing after 50+ years at it
2. His sense of humor – Guy is serious about his music, serious as a heart-attack about his guitar, but doesn’t take himself too serious. I remember running in to him nearly a dozen years ago at his Legends Club in Chicago, nicest, most down to earth guy you will ever want to meet. That comes through on stage too, he has fun up there – that must account for at least part of his longevity
3. Spirit of the blues…every Buddy Guy I’ve ever seen he pays tribute to his mentors (Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, BB King to name a few) as well as those that have clearly learned a ton from Buddy including Eric Clapton and the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was the special relationship between Stevie and Buddy that provided the link for me to becoming a huge Buddy Guy fan.
Thankful we still have him sharing his roots and continuing to bridge Blues and Rock together at the same time progressing the future of Blues music all the while continuing to provide an essential link for today’s youth back to the greats where it all started.
Have you ever attended a Buddy Guy concert? If so, what did you think?
Filed under blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Jun 20th, 2011. Comment. 
Robert Johnson Gibson L-1
Every great movement has its legends, for blues – and blue guitar especially – no legend is greater than that of Robert Johnson.
A mystery man that was known by many names, by all accounts a transient who never stayed in one place very long, and a man who died young under very suspicious circumstances. Born in 1911, Johnson’s life was cut short in 1938.
Along the way, there was the odd disappearance of an “average” blues guitar player and the re-emergence of a masterful, almost “beyond-human” guitar man leading to the legendary story of how Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads of Highway 61 and U.S. 49 in the Mississippi Delta.
Today I came across this story in the hometown newspaper of Johnson’s confirmed birth – Hazlehurst Mississippi – “Hazlehurst To Restore Blueseman’s Home” where the county is close to reaching its objective of raising funds to restore the house.
Will the restored house bring tourist dollars to the county? Perhaps – in any case it is good to see reminders of the great musical artists in history, sort of a snapshot in time.
What is your favorite Robert Johnson song? Sweet Home Chicago? Crossroad Blues, Hellhound on My Trail? Others?
Filed under blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Nov 13th, 2009. Comment.
You’ve heard it a thousand times right – blues guitar is as much about when you play the notes as the quantity of notes you play on the guitar. After all, it is the combination of steady, infectious rhythm with creative melodies crafted with an instinctive sense of timing that creates the masters of the blues guitar.
Think Freddie King’s 1961 hit “Hideaway” brilliantly written for blues guitar and you immediately think of the different levels of melodies with impeccable timing on top of a very powerful shuffle rhythm. Seeing Freddie bop to the rhythm while he played the instrumental on his bright red Gibson ES-335. No doubt Freddie received much of his training in melody and unique finger picking style from his mentor Jimmy Rogers – an early member of Muddy Water Band in the 1950’s.
In today’s era of playing louder and stronger it is still nice to hear guitar players who master the 3 critical factors of rhythm, timing and melody.
Case in point – someone I’ve been drawn to increasingly in the last few months is Jimmie Vaughan, brother of the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan and guitar master behind the original Fabulous Thunderbirds where he helped mold the modern Texas blues sound.
Listen to Jimmie in this version of “Don’t You Know” from his Strange Pleasure CD
Notice how choosy Jimmy is with his note selection – every note means something in terms of melody to the song.
Now everyone marvels at Stevie Ray Vaughan’s incredible attack and fast playing, but what really made him great is that combined with the sense of rhythm, timing and melody that he shares with his older brother Jimmy.
Anyone who listened at all to the Fabulous Thunderbirds knows what an amazing rhythm guitar player Jimmy is – but for those who want a reminder, listen to this powerful, hard-hitting rhythm Jimmy uses on his recent CD titled “On the Jimmy Reed Highway”
When I think of Jimmy I think of the Groove Man…I could listen to that rhythm all day, it’s good for the soul:
What do you guys think – isn’t this the way guitar was meant to be played?
Filed under Blog by on Oct 21st, 2009. Comment.
