Clichéd descriptions like “the last great blues man” are somewhat accurate, if incomplete, when discussing the life and career of legendary Chicago guitar giant Buddy Guy. But Guy treats such accolades with disdain, just as he brushes off attempts to label him the finest guitarist of all time. He instead defers to his longtime friend B.B. King or even Jimi Hendrix, who was a huge Guy fan.
Guy prefers to look ahead rather than backward, and at age 81 he maintains a healthy slate of recording and touring dates — including Tuesday’s appearance at the Schermerhorn — that rivals those of performers half his age. He’s also still playing and singing with the ferocity and verve that have amazed and influenced a host of artists, including virtually every significant rock player since the ’60s — some of whom join Guy on his newest release.
The Blues Is Alive and Well (out now via Silvertone Records) is the latest in a line of topflight Guy releases produced by Nashville’s Tom Hambridge. Keith Richards and Jeff Beck provide powerhouse assistance on the dashing single “Cognac,” providing a nice contrast to Guy’s slithering, flashy lead lines, while Mick Jagger contributes pithy harmonica licks to “You Did the Crime.” Yet another Brit, vocalist James Bay, may be a bit too smooth for some tastes on “Blue No More,” but Guy seems at home with Bay’s mellow inflections and resonant delivery on the duet.
But what may truly surprise fans is the energetic and engaging quality of Guy’s vocals throughout the album, his 18th solo studio release. “Bad Day” sounds as bawdy and combative as anything Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf issued during the heyday of Chicago blues in the ’50s and early ’60s, while the eerie feel of a man wrestling with the question of how much time he has left makes “When My Day Comes” equal parts compelling and chilling. “When I grow old, mama / And my days are through,” he sings, “I got no need, mama / To lay my burden on you.” You’re not sure what he’s carrying, but it sounds heavy.
Though Guy is a Louisiana native who got his start playing in bands around Baton Rouge, he has been a fixture on the Chicago scene for more than 60 years. His formative sessions for Cobra Records established him as a dynamic, imaginative soloist. But they were also early indicators that his ideas for what could be done with the guitar would sometimes prove too radical for either his fellow musicians or commercially minded record executives.
Guy’s years at Chess during the ’60s were marked by conflict and stylistic disarray, mainly because he sought freedom to experiment with different sonic approaches and solo lengths during songs — things that folks who wanted formulaic, familiar-sounding hit recordings loathed. Chess owner and executive producer Leonard Chess went so far as to label much of what Guy was playing in the studio “noise,” buried the bulk of what Guy recorded as a solo artist in the label’s vault and relegated him to session work for others on the label, including Waters.
Still, Guy persevered. It didn’t hurt that rock fans embraced the exact techniques and tendencies that more conservative blues types hated. Guy had long been idolized by English rockers, and his 1990 appearance at the 24 Nights all-star blues lineup at London’s Royal Albert Hall — at the invitation of Eric Clapton — led to his eventual signing with Silvertone. That helped him reach a wider audience with what many regard as his commercial comeback, 1991’s Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues. Guy has become a revered star, and his profile has continued to rise, both due to his albums and his continued involvement as a promoter (and performer, for a star-studded run of shows each January) at Buddy Guy’s Legends, a club he’s owned in Chicago since 1989.
Though it took far longer than it should have, Guy has received the plaudits and awards so well deserved by someone whose excellence has spanned so many decades. Six of his albums have been Grammy winners, and he’s also won 37 Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W.C. Handy Blues Awards). In 2003, Guy received the National Medal of Arts, putting him in the company of such greats as Ray Charles and George Jones. In 2005, King and Clapton formally inducted Guy into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2012, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. During this year’s Americana Music Honors and Awards ceremony (Sept. 12 at the Ryman), Guy will receive yet another honor: the AMA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist.
The recognition is nice, but it’s beside the point. What really matters is that both Buddy Guy and the distinctive, highly individualistic brand of blues he’s championed remain alive and well.
