BUDDY GUY"CAN'T QUIT THE BLUES"
OCT 31, 2006
MAY 30, 1957-2005
SILVERTONE
COMPILATION, BOX SET
REVIEW
by Jeff Tamarkin
Legend status came late to Buddy Guy, so it shouldn't be surprising that this is the first box set devoted to the blues giant's work. Yet it is still a bit of a shock, because Guy, it seems, has always been a part of the modern blues scene, ubiquitous even in the late '60s at the era's high-profile rock and folk festivals, playing the hippie ballrooms alongside the major rockers of the day, and being name-dropped by the likes of Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin. So this three-CD/one-DVD collection arrives years after it might have, its audio discs stacked with 47 prime samplings of Guy's sizzling guitar work and passionate wailing, covering nearly 50 years' worth of music. That said, those looking for an evenly balanced career overview may ultimately be disappointed: two of the three CDs are drawn from recordings made during Guy's comeback years of the 1990s to the present, after he signed to the Silvertone label (he hadn't recorded in nearly a decade prior to that point), leaving only the first disc devoted to Guy's influential recordings for such labels as Delmark, Vanguard, Artistic, Alligator, JSP, and, most importantly, Chess Records, where — although he felt stifled by the label's insistence that he soften his lethal attack — he cut some classic sides working alongside such blues titans as Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, and Junior Wells, the harmonica genius with whom Guy would share stages for many years. That first disc is crammed with classic blues moments — from the first track, 1957's "The Way You Been Treating Me," Guy is burning, and as he settles into his trademark stinging guitar style and belted-out, passionate vocalizing, leaving behind some of the more derivative aspects of his early playing and singing, it becomes quickly apparent that he was meant to become one of the genre's most influential artists. "I Can't Quit the Blues," from 1968, is a soul blaster par excellence, and by the early '70s, rock luminaries such as Clapton and Bill Wyman of the Stones were lining up to play on his records. Guy's Grammy-winning 1991 debut for Silvertone, Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, marks the onset of his rightful ascendance to blues royalty, and though excessive attention is arguably paid to this period of his career, there is no denying that some of his best music has been made during these years. In particular, tracks from the rootsy 2001 Sweet Tea are as good as anything he'd done before, and even the all-star affairs — among them "Crawlin' Kingsnake," cut in 2003 with Clapton, B.B. King, Jim Keltner, and others aboard, and 2005's "The Price You Gotta Pay," featuring Keb' Mo', Keith Richards, and others — find Guy still in tip-top shape. The DVD features a 90-minute documentary and rare live footage, including six full performances from the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Ideally this collection (which includes six previously unreleased tracks) would have benefited from a fourth disc expanding upon the pre-Silvertone years, but it's hard to argue with something that's been so long overdue and, despite its lopsided emphasis on the recent output, delivers so much.
CD1
1 The Way You Been Treating Me (Guy) 3:15
2 Sit and Cry (The Blues) (Dixon) 3:03
3 This Is the End (Turner) 2:58
4 Untitled Instrumental (Guy) 1:46
5 First Time I Met the Blues (Montgomery) 2:18
6 Ten Years Ago (Guy) 2:38
7 Let Me Love You Baby (Dixon) 2:53
8 Stone Crazy (Guy) 7:11
9 When My Left Eye Jumps (Dixon, Perkins) 3:54
10 Hoodoo Man Blues (Williams) 2:06
11 In the Wee Hours (Blakemore) 3:44
12 I Can't Quit the Blues (Guy) 3:18
13 One Room Country Shack (Walton) 5:37
14 T-Bone Shuffle (Walker) 4:17
15 When You See the Tears from My Eyes (Live) (Guy, Wells) 6:22
16 I Smell a Rat (Guy) 9:12
17 She Suits Me to a T (Guy) 4:31
18 D. J. Play My Blues (Guy) 5:20
CD2
1 Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (Guy) 4:31
2 Mustang Sally (Rice) 4:41
3 Five Long Years (Boyd) 8:26
4 Mary Ann (Charles) 3:14
5 She's Nineteen Years Old (Morgenfield) 5:44
6 Miss Ida B (Sykes) 6:25
7 Feels Like Rain (Hiatt) 4:37
8 7-11 (Robinson) 6:59
9 I Smell Trouble (Robey) 3:17
10 Someone Else Is Steppin' In (Slippin' out, Slippin' In) (LaSalle) 4:22
11 My Time After Awhile (Live) (Badger, Feinberg, Geddins) 7:27
12 Your Mind Is on Vacation (Allison) 3:20
13 Midnight Train (Reale, Tiven) 5:22
Performed by Guy, Jonny Lang
14 Totally out of Control (Guy) 6:49
CD3
1 Nobody Understands Me But My Guitar (Christian, Holder) 5:10
2 Baby Please Don't Leave Me (Kimbrough) 7:25
3 Done Got Old (Kimbrough) 3:24
4 Honey Bee (Morgenfield) 5:48
5 Tramp (Fulsom, McCracklin) 6:48
6 Crawlin' Kingsnake (Besman, Hooker) 5:17
7 Moanin' and Groanin' (Shines) 3:29
8 Bad Life Blues (Hogg, Josea) 3:47
9 I Can't Be Satisfied (Live) (Morgenfield) 3:00
10 First Time I Met the Blues (Live) (Montgomery) 4:11
11 I'd Rather Be Blind, Crippled and Crazy (Carter, Hodges, Malone) 3:30
12 Somebody's Sleeping in My Bed (Crutcher, Jones) 6:26
13 I Miss You (Hester) 4:05
14 Cut You Loose (London) 7:39
15 The Price You Gotta Pay (Keb' Mo) 3:41
Ray Allison - Drums
Lefty Bates - Guitar
Jeff Beck - Guitar (Electric)
Fred Below - Drums
Frank Blinkal - Guitar, Vocals
Tony Braunagel - Percussion
Ben Cauley - Trumpet
Eric Clapton - Guitar
Shemekia Copeland - Vocals
Aaron Corthen - Saxophone
David Z. - Percussion
Lew DelGatto - Sax (Baritone)
Willie Dixon - Bass
Dr. John - Piano
Malcolm Duncan - Saxophone
McKinley Easton - Sax (Baritone)
Hillary Faeta - Vocals
Davey Faragher - Bass
Bobby Fields - Saxophone
Tony Garnier - Bass (Upright)
Sid Gauld - Trumpet
Renee Geyer - Vocals (bckgr)
Jarrett Gibson - Sax (Tenor)
Marty Grebb - Piano, Sax (Baritone)
David Grissom - Guitar
Buddy Guy - Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Vocals
Phil Guy - Guitar
Jack Hale - Trombone
Jim Hale - Trombone
Donald Hankins - Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Richard Hayward - Drums
Jack Holder - Guitar
Scott Holt - Guitar
Mike Homberger - Vocals
Jim Horn - Flute, Sax (Baritone)
Neil Hubbard - Guitar
Clifton James - Drums
Jimmy Johnson - Guitar
Johnnie Johnson - Piano
Steve Jordan - Drums
Jim Keltner - Drums
B.B. King - Guitar
Crazy Dave Komie - Vocals
Danny Kortchmar - Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
Blind Willie Lambchop - Vocals
Chris Layton - Drums
Lafayette Leake - Piano
Darrell Leonard - Sax (Tenor)
Andrew Love - Sax (Tenor)
Anne Markovich - Vocals
Emily Maso - Vocals
Suzanne Maso - Vocals
Jimbo "Hambone" Mathus - Guitar
Annette McKee - Vocals
Ian McLagan - Wurlitzer
Lannie McMIllian - Sax (Tenor)
Jack Meyers - Bass
Little Brother Montgomery - Piano
Brian Moravec - Vocals
Mike Morrison - Bass
Garrett Mudd - Vocals
Bob Neely - Sax (Tenor)
Ivan Neville - Organ, Keyboards, Vocals (bckgr)
Paul Ossola - Bass
Bill Payne - Piano
Odie Payne - Drums
Shawn Pelton - Drums
Leon Pendarvis - Organ
Pinetop Perkins - Piano
Lenny Pickett - Sax (Tenor)
John Porter - Guitar
Jimmy Powers - Harp
Bonnie Raitt - Vocals, Slide Guitar
A.C. Reed - Sax (Tenor)
Jay Reil - Vocals
Carey Reisz - Vocals
Otis Rush - Guitar
Greg Rzab - Bass
Johnny Lee Schell - Guitar
Tommy Shannon - Bass
Roosevelt Shaw - Drums
J. Neil Sidwell - Trombone
Otis Spann - Piano
Leroy Stewart - Bass
Joe Sublett - Sax (Tenor)
Larry Taylor - Bass (Acoustic)
Terry Norman Taylor - Guitar
Phil Thomas - Drums
Murray Watson - Trumpet
Mick Weaver - Organ, Piano
Willie Weeks - Bass
Junior Wells - Harmonica, Vocals
Doug & Telisha Williams - Guitar
Dennis Wilson - Trombone
Bernie Worrell - Keyboards
Orlando Wright - Bass
Reese Wynans - Organ, Piano
BORN George Guy on Jul 30, 1936 in Lettsworth, LA
BIOGRAPHY
by Bill Dahl
He's Chicago's blues king today, ruling his domain just as his idol and mentor Muddy Waters did before him. Yet there was a time, and not all that long ago either, when Buddy Guy couldn't even negotiate a decent record deal. Times sure have changed for the better — Guy's first three albums for Silvertone in the '90s all earned Grammys. Eric Clapton unabashedly calls Buddy Guy his favorite blues axeman, and so do a great many adoring fans worldwide. High-energy guitar histrionics and boundless on-stage energy have always been Guy trademarks, along with a tortured vocal style that's nearly as distinctive as his incendiary rapid-fire fretwork. He's come a long way from his beginnings on the 1950s Baton Rouge blues scene — at his first gigs with bandleader "Big Poppa" John Tilley, the young guitarist had to chug a stomach-jolting concoction of Dr. Tichenor's antiseptic and wine to ward off an advanced case of stage fright. But by the time he joined harpist Raful Neal's band, Guy had conquered his nervousness. Guy journeyed to Chicago in 1957, ready to take the town by storm. But times were tough initially, until he turned up the juice as a showman (much as another of his early idols, Guitar Slim, had back home). It didn't take long after that for the new kid in town to establish himself. He hung with the city's blues elite: Freddy King, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam, who introduced Buddy Guy to Cobra Records boss Eli Toscano. Two searing 1958 singles for Cobra's Artistic subsidiary were the result: "This Is the End" and "Try to Quit You Baby" exhibited more than a trace of B.B. King influence, while "You Sure Can't Do" was an unabashed homage to Guitar Slim. Willie Dixon produced the sides. When Cobra folded, Guy wisely followed Rush over to Chess. With the issue of his first Chess single in 1960, Guy was no longer aurally indebted to anybody. "First Time I Met the Blues" and its follow-up, "Broken Hearted Blues," were fiery, tortured slow blues brilliantly showcasing Guy's whammy-bar-enriched guitar and shrieking, hellhound-on-his-trail vocals. Although he's often complained that Leonard Chess wouldn't allow him to turn up his guitar loud enough, the claim doesn't wash: Guy's 1960-1967 Chess catalog remains his most satisfying body of work. A shuffling "Let Me Love You Baby," the impassioned downbeat items "Ten Years Ago," "Stone Crazy," "My Time After Awhile," and "Leave My Girl Alone," and a bouncy "No Lie" rate with the hottest blues waxings of the '60s. While at Chess, Guy worked long and hard as a session guitarist, getting his licks in on sides by Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Koko Taylor (on her hit "Wang Dang Doodle"). Upon leaving Chess in 1967, Guy went to Vanguard. His first LP for the firm, A Man and the Blues, followed in the same immaculate vein as his Chess work and contained the rocking "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but This Is Buddy Guy and Hold That Plane! proved somewhat less consistent. Guy and harpist Junior Wells had long been friends and played around Chicago together (Guy supplied the guitar work on Wells' seminal 1965 Delmark set Hoodoo Man Blues, initially billed as "Friendly Chap" because of his Chess contract); they recorded together for Blue Thumb in 1969 as Buddy and the Juniors (pianist Junior Mance being the other Junior) and Atlantic in 1970 (sessions co-produced by Eric Clapton and Tom Dowd), and 1972 for the solid album Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues. Buddy and Junior toured together throughout the '70s, their playful repartee immortalized on Drinkin' TNT 'n' Smokin' Dynamite, a live set cut at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Guy's reputation among rock guitar gods such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan was unsurpassed, but prior to his Grammy-winning 1991 Silvertone disc Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, he amazingly hadn't issued a domestic album in a decade. That's when the Buddy Guy bandwagon really picked up steam — he began selling out auditoriums and turning up on network television (David Letterman, Jay Leno, etc.). Feels Like Rain, his 1993 encore, was a huge letdown artistically, unless one enjoys the twisted concept of having one of the world's top bluesmen duet with country hat act Travis Tritt and hopelessly overwrought rock singer Paul Rodgers. By comparison, 1994's Slippin' In, produced by Eddie Kramer, was a major step back in the right direction, with no hideous duets and a preponderance of genuine blues excursions. Last Time Around: Live at Legends, an acoustic outing with longtime partner Junior Wells followed in 1998. In 2001, Guy switched gears and went to Mississippi for a recording of the type of modal juke-joint blues favored by Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and the Fat Possum crew. The result was Sweet Tea: arguably one of his finest albums and yet a complete anomaly in his catalog. Oddly enough, he chose to follow that up with Blues Singer in 2003, another completely acoustic effort that won a Grammy. For 2005's Bring 'Em In, it was back to the same template as his first albums for Silvertone, with polished production and a handful of guest stars. Skin Deep appeared in 2008 and featured guest spots by Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Eric Clapton, and Robert Randolph. Snakebite was released in 2009.A Buddy Guy concert can sometimes be a frustrating experience. He'll be in the middle of something downright hair-raising, only to break it off abruptly in midsong, or he'll ignore his own massive songbook in order to offer imitations of Clapton, Vaughan, and Hendrix. But Guy, whose club remains the most successful blues joint in Chicago (you'll likely find him sitting at the bar whenever he's in town), is without a doubt the Windy City's reigning blues artist — and he rules benevolently.
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