Buddy Guy

BUDDY GUY BIOGRAPHY

“He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people… my course was set, and Buddy Guy was my pilot.”
— Eric Clapton

Buddy Guy is one of the titans of the Blues, straddling traditional and modern forms, as well as musical generations. He’s worked with Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, on one hand, and Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Rolling Stones, on the other. There are few notable blues figures that Guy hasn’t brushed up against. He was even an influence on Jimi Hendrix.

The genre’s most electrifying guitarist, Guy has remained a vital and current musician, moving blues forward without losing sight of its roots. He’s renowned for his raw, blistering vocals and high-voltage guitar playing. Guy attained great stature within blues circles over the course of three decades, but his career broke wide open in 1991 with the release of Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues. This landmark release won him a Grammy and five W.C. Handy awards, and he recorded and toured prolifically in its wake.

Clapton has proclaimed Guy “by far without a doubt the best guitar player alive…He really changed the course of rock and roll blues.” Guy regards himself as a “caretaker of the blues.” Having learned from the likes of Waters, Otis Rush, Guitar Slim and Magic Sam, he explains, “I just take what they taught me and keep adding to it.”

George “Buddy” Guy was born in 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana. His earliest influences included T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Slim and Lightnin’ Hopkins – blues musicians who were all uniquely expressive stylists and showmen. Guy’s high-energy showmanship also owed a debt to Guitar Slim (a.k.a. Eddie Jones), of “The Things That I Used to Do” fame. As Guy stated in his autobiography, “I wanted to play like B.B. King but act like Guitar Slim.” Along the way, he developed his own style, typified by a fierce, staccato attack and tense, single-note solos.

He spent a year and a half playing with John “Big Poppa” Tilley’s band in Baton Rouge. After sending a tape to Chess Records, Guy headed to Chicago in 1958 to seek his fortune. He drew attention on the club circuit for his fiery fretwork and showmanship. With assistance from his friend and fellow bluesman, Magic Sam, Guy got signed to Cobra Records (releasing a few singles on its Artistic subsidiary). A year later Cobra folded and Guy – along with labelmates Willie Dixon and Otis Rush – moved to Chess, where he played recorded from 1960 to 1967.

Taking notice of the evolving blues-rock scene in England, Guy left Chess in 1968 and moved to Vanguard Records, where he cut the classic albums A Man and His Blues and Hold That Plane. In 1970 Buddy and the Juniors – a trio of Guy, harmonica player Junior Wells and pianist Junior Mance – was released on Blue Thumb. Guy’s partnership with Wells yielded the 1972 album Buddy Guy and Junior Wells Play the Blues. A spontaneous, tradition-minded blues set, it was produced by the impressive triumvirate of Eric Clapton, Ahmet Ertegun and Tom Dowd and released on Atco Records. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman produced and played on the Guy-Wells live album Drinkin’ TNT ‘n’ Smokin’ Dynamite, recorded in 1974.

In 1989, he opened the blues club Legends in Chicago, which became a favorite hangout for blues musicians. Guy’s comeback began when he joined Eric Clapton onstage at London’s Royal Albert Hall during the guitarist’s multi-night run in 1990-91. That exposure led to a new recording contract. Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues – the first of many albums on the Silvertone label – ignited a full-blown renaissance that made Guy the preeminent blues guitarist of the Nineties. Later that same year Guy received the prestigious Century Award “for distinguished artistic achievement” from Billboard magazine.

Having just turned seventy years of age, Guy is still going strong. Recent releases have included Sweet Tea, an electric blues album recorded in Mississippi, and Blues Singer, a 2004 acoustic set in which Guy covers favorites by such peers as Skip James, Son House and John Lee Hooker. And now, the story continues with Bring ‘Em In, which finds Guy trading licks with the likes of Carlos Santana (“I Put a Spell On You”) and John Mayer (on the Otis Redding-penned “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”).

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