Blues master George “Buddy” Guy was born on July 30, 1936, in Lettsworth, Louisiana, but has made Chicago his home since 1957. Guy, a legend in the music world, is also the owner of a major Chicago blues club, appropriately named “Legends.”
And Guy truly is a legend: A winner of eight Grammys, with 15 total nominations, Guy was awarded Kennedy Center Honors in 2012. Before that, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. And before that, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2003.
Join us for a celebration of his 87th birthday, and all that he’s done!
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Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music. With 170 stories (and counting) covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack, I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
Michael J. Watkins and James M. Manheim penned Guy’s biography for Musician’s Guide, detailing his beginnings.
Life was difficult in rural Louisiana, especially when the weather did not cooperate and the cotton harvest was poor. To help feed his family, Guy fished and hunted raccoon, muskrat, and possum. His mother had a vegetable garden and grew food in the summer, making it last all the way through the winter. Guy worked on his family's farm, but on Saturdays he would pick cotton for a half day to earn money for himself.
From the beginning Guy spent his hard-earned money on the blues by sending away for old 78s of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Guy made his first guitar out of old paint cans and wire from the front screen door. When his father got tired of all the mosquitoes that came into the house, he bought his son an old acoustic guitar with only two strings on it. Soon Guy was able to pick out a passable version of Hooker's "Boogie Chillen." He first heard an electric guitar when a man who was passing through town playing for change plugged in his amp in front of a local store. Guy threw the man his 35 cents' allowance, and the rest was history.
As many kids his age were forced to do in his circumstances, Guy quit high school to work--pumping gas and washing cars in Baton Rouge. It was at the gas station that Guy got his introduction to show business. A local bandleader, John "Big Poppa" Tilley, heard of a young man at the local service station who could play guitar. The 300-pound Tilley brought his guitar and amp to the pumps, and Guy got an audition right there. He roared through a rendition of Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones's version of "Things I Used To Do." Not only did the playing attract a crowd of people, but Tilley hired Guy on the spot.
After a dubious beginning, in which Tilley fired the shy, nervous young player because he would not perform before a crowd, Guy became a regular with the band. By this time he had secured a job as a custodian at Louisiana State University, and had all but given up on the idea of being a professional musician. His mother, however, disagreed with her son's assessment of his abilities. Isabell, who was recovering from a stroke, regained her ability to speak, and began to encourage his musical career. With the help of a local disc jockey, Guy made two demos, "The Way You've Been Treating Me" and "Baby, Don't You Wanna Come Home." Guy sent them to the preeminent blues label of the day, Chess Records in Chicago, sure that he would be a star.
Here’s “The Way You’ve Been Treating Me.”
James Nadal at All About Jazz picks up Guy’s story:
Guy’s Chess sides never won the recognition that accrued to some of his labelmates, but he scored a hit with “Stone Crazy,” his fourth single for the label. Another highlight of his Chess tenure was “When My Left Eye Jumps,” a menacing slow blues penned by Willie Dixon. While at Chess, Guy also served as an in-house guitarist, playing on sessions for Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor and others. One landmark recording backing Muddy Waters, “Folk Singer,” was cut in 1963 and released in the spring of 1964. Notably, he performed on Koko Taylor’s “Wang Dang Doodle” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.”
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, released on Atco Records. There were no fewer than 20 releases under Guy's name during the 1970s and '80s, the best of them collaborations with Junior Wells. But by the time the Eighties became the Nineties, Guy amazingly didn't even have a domestic record deal.
Buddy signed with Silvertone records in 1990, and the label’s goal was to bring him the stature he deserved as a recording artist. His first three albums for Silvertone the 1991 comeback smash “Damn Right, I've Got the Blues,” 1993's “Feels Like Rain,” and 1994's “Slippin' In,” all earned Grammy Awards.
Guy's legend has only grown throughout the Nineties and the early 21st century. Subsequent releases like the eminently satisfying “Live: The Real Deal,” (1996), the daring “Heavy Love,” (1998) and 2001's “Sweet Tea,” have demonstrated that Guy, while firmly ensconced in his blues roots, has always tried to keep his music looking forward, even at the risk of alienating lovers of traditional blues sounds. The story continues with “Blues Singer,” a 2004 acoustic set in which Guy covers favorites by such peers as Skip James, Son House and John Lee Hooker. “Bring ‘Em In.” was released in 2005.
Give a listen to Junior Wells and Guy, live in Boston in 1989:
His performance of the Grammy-winning “Damn Right, I Got The Blues,” at the Glastonbury Festival in 2008 electrified the audience.
It’s always wonderful to hear a musician tell their story in their own words. The PBS “American Masters” series premiered the documentary “The Blues Chase The Blues Away” in July 2021.
This new documentary features intimate, original interviews with Guy and archival and never-before-seen performances, including footage of the blues legend on stage with the likes of President Obama and The Rolling Stones. Interweaving archival interviews with Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Willie Dixon with original interviews with musicians Guy influenced, including John Mayer, Carlos Santana, Gary Clark, Jr., Kingfish and more, American Masters traces Guy’s rich career and lasting impact as one of the final surviving connections to an historic era in the country’s musical evolution
Check out the trailer:
Below, you can watch the full “American Masters” episode, with a runtime of 81 minutes.
In the film, Guy talks about how honored he was to be invited to the White House as a Kennedy Center honoree. President Barack Obama—a Chicago legend in his own right—gave him a lovely introduction, captured here by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Here’s Obama’s riff on Buddy Guy: “Growing up as the son of a sharecropper in Louisiana, Buddy Guy made his first guitar out of wires from a window screen — that worked until his parents started wondering how all the mosquitos were getting in. But Buddy was hooked, and a few years later, he bought a one-way ticket to Chicago to find his heroes — Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Pretty soon he was broke, hungry and ready to head home. And then, one night outside a blues club, a man pulled up and handed Buddy a salami sandwich and said, “I’m Mud,” and “you ain’t goin’ nowhere.” And that was the start of something special.
“Of course, success hasn’t changed the humble country boy who used to milk cows on a farm outside Baton Rouge. Buddy tells a story about his son Greg wanting to learn to play the guitar like Prince. Buddy told him he’d better learn some Jimi Hendrix first. It was only after watching a TV special on Hendrix that Greg found out Jimi had borrowed some licks from his dad. So Greg said, “I didn’t know you could play like that.” And Buddy said, “You never asked.”
“Today, Buddy is still going strong — one of the last guardians of the great American blues. And on a personal note, I will never forget Buddy playing “Sweet Home Chicago” in this very room back in February and him, and a few others, forcing me to sing along – — which was just okay. There aren’t too many people who can get me to sing, but Buddy was one of them. And so we are so glad that we can honor him tonight. Congratulations, Buddy Guy.”
Here’s Guy performing at the White House’s “Red, White, and Blue” celebration.
If you have never seen the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors for Guy, you are in for a treat. Hosted by actor Morgan Freeman, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman kicked off the tribute with Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog.” She was followed by Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan, with a rendition of “The Things I Used To Do.” Beth Hart and Jeff Beck got a standing ovation for "I'd Rather Go Blind," and Bonnie Raitt closed out the program with "Sweet Home Chicago," joined by the other musicians.
Here’s the entire Guy segment, clocking in at just over 18 minutes.
One of the things I have always admired about Buddy Guy is his harmony with younger musicians, coupled with his appreciation and promotion of them.
Here he is with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, from Clarksdale, Mississippi.
I love this collaboration from 2018’s “Playing For Change.”
The organizers offer the story “Behind the Song ‘Skin Deep”:
Playing For Change and Buddy Guy united to record and film his anthem, “Skin Deep,” across America.
The song includes over 50 musicians from coast to coast featuring Buddy Guy, Tom Morello, Billy Branch, Chicago Children’s Choir, and Roots Gospel Voices of Mississippi. Originally, this was going to be a song across Chicago to bring light to all the violent shootings across the city but as time marched on, along with various shootings across our country, we realized we needed to expand our vision and use this song as a tool to unite our divided nation.
Have a listen.
Lyrics:
I've been around a while
I know wrong from right
And since a long time ago
Things been always black and white
Just like you can't judge a book by the cover
We all gotta be careful
How we treat one another
[Chorus]
Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Underneath we're all the same
Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Underneath we're all the same
We're all of the same
A man in Louisiana
He never called me by my name
He said "boy do this and boy do that"
But I never once complained
I knew he had a good heart
But he just didn't understand
That I needed to be treated
Just like any other man
[Chorus]
I sat my little child down
When he was old enough to know
I said I fell in this big wide world
You're gonna be all kinda froze
I said son it all comes down to just one simple rule
That you treat everybody just the way
You want them to treat you
Yeah
[Chorus: x2]
And as music journalist Derek Scancarelli wrote for Forbes on July 14, Guy isn’t slowing down.
He’s still touring, and plans to ring in his big day “with cake and cognac, of course.”
On July 30, blues king Buddy Guy will celebrate his 87th birthday. Rather than lounging around, the iconic guitarist will spend the day traveling from Denver to Las Vegas to perform another show on his long-spanning and far-reaching Damn Right Farewell Tour. But a few days prior, his crew and family are squeezing in a hometown celebration to honor the music pioneer. His party will boast the essentials: cake, cognac, and live music at his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago.
Following a busy year on the road in 2022, Guy has made 2023 one his most jam-packed touring schedules to date. After his annual January residency at his own venue, the Louisiana-born musician has brought his licks and riffs to every corner of America and around the world, including India, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and France. He’s performed literally every month—taking minimal breaks—and will keep going through until the end of the year. It proves just how hard it is for a true bluesman to say goodbye.
“I couldn't dream of talking to you today and saying I'm living comfortably because I learned how to play guitar well enough to get paid,” Guy explains with humility. “There wasn't no such thing as that when I was teaching myself how to play the guitar!”
I’ll close with Guy’s 2022 album, “The Blues Don’t Lie,” reviewed here by Blues Blast Magazine.
“And the winner of the 2023 Blues Blast Music Award for Best Traditional (or Contemporary or whatever category you’d like to put it in) Blues Album of the Year is…Buddy Guy– The Blues Don’t Lie!” Any year Buddy Guy releases a new album, the first thing I think of is, “Well, he’s got another award wrapped up.” But I’m sorry; I’m getting ahead of myself.
Buddy returns to producing albums with Tom Hambridge. Tom wrote eleven of the 16 tracks for this album. Buddy wrote two himself (perhaps the best two on the CD) and there are also three excellent covers included here. Sixteen tracks– over an hour of music. At 86, Buddy is still going at it full force with lots and lots of new music and giving it his all. Why would anyone expect less? And to add to the enjoyment, we get to also have a half dozen superb artists perform with him on this new album.
The players here, in addition to Buddy, are Tom Hambridge on drums and percussion, Michael Rhodes and Glenn Worf share the bass duties, Kevin McKendrie and Reese Wynans alternate on the various keyboard instruments, Rob McNelley adds his guitar, Max Abrams and Steve Patrick are the horn section, and track 2 features Michael Saint-Leon on Low End Guitar and Mike Hicks on Background Vocals. Guest appearances by Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, Bobby Rush, Jason Isbell and Wendy Moten round out this pretty much all star affair. What a set of players and singers!
You can listen to the full album below!
Join me in the comments for more of Guy’s great music, and be sure to post your favorites as we wish this legend a very happy 87th birthday! Bring your cake and cognac!
