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The Blues with Buddy
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This CD is an 18-track compilation of Buddy Guy's `Chess' years
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Buddy Guy: The Collection
MCA Spectrum, CD, Rs. 395
BUDDY GUY is "by far and without doubt the best guitar player alive", according to Eric Clapton. Born George Guy in Lettsworth, Louisiana, in 1936 to a sharecropping family, he tuned into local radio stations on a battery-operated set to listen to Southern blues greats such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester and Guitar Slim. Picking up the guitar in his teens, he mastered it entirely by ear, with no tutelage from anybody. He played briefly in the Baton Rouge area before heading out to Chicago in 1957. He hadn't eaten for two days when a Good Samaritan spotted him with his guitar, and urged the great Otis Rush [who was the evening's featured performer at the 708 Club] to let Buddy sit in.
Dixon's help
Impressed by his performance, the club gave Buddy a regular gig, and he soon appeared as a sideman to major Chicago bluesmen of the day. Willie Dixon helped him land a contract with Chess [the legendary Chicago blues label] where he took over house-guitarist duties, backing recording sessions of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, and Sonny Boy Williamson. Over the ensuing decade, he cut several sides for Chess, the last one being the LP Left My Blues in San Francisco. His live performances were roof-raisers, and he toured Europe as part of the American Folk Blues Festivals in 1965 and 1967.
He switched to Vanguard Records some time in late 1967, collaborating with Junior Wells [on vocals and harmonica] on many subsequent releases. The following decade was unkind to Buddy the recording artiste.
Experiencing the frustration of seeing many of his trademark guitar licks lifted verbatim by rock guitarists, he languished in anonymity while they raked it in. [Two exceptions were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, who acknowledged him graciously].
High visibility
Maintaining high visibility on the live blues/rock circuit, he toured with the Rolling Stones in 1970, and appeared at the Newport (1968) and Montreux (1974) jazz festivals. He guested on Clapton's Royal Albert Hall performances in 1990-91 [later released as the album 24 Nights]. From the mid-Eighties on, he got some recognition, with Grammy awards to three of his albums: Damn Right I Got The Blues (1991), Feels Like Rain (1993), and Slippin' In (1994). Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1985, he tasted a bit of commercial success, and now has his own blues club in Chicago.
This CD is an 18-track compilation of his Chess years, and covers the era 1960-67. Among his notable original compositions here are "First Time I Met The Blues" [an R&B chart hit in 1962, featuring Otis Spann on piano], the original version of "Stone Crazy" [not the 1981 live version on the eponymous Alligator album], "I Suffer With The Blues", and "Worried Mind".
There are some covers as well, such as the Willie Dixon's "Crazy Love" and "Too Many Ways", Sonny Boy Williamson's "Keep It To Myself", and Champion Jack Dupree's "Mother-in-Law Blues". "She Suits Me to a Tee" has a funk groove to it, hinting at some of the diversification Buddy Guy experimented with subsequently.
These tracks predate his association with Junior Wells, so Wells doesn't appear on this collection. They also predate his guitar-pyrotechnic phase, so those looking for rapid-fire rock-style solos will be disappointed.
But there's abundant guitar finesse on display, and his frantic vocals have remained essentially unchanged for four-and-a-half decades.
VISHWAMBHAR PATI
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