S4L Snapshots: Blues

Thursday, 29 July 2021

Buddy Guy - Still Got the Blues at 85 Years Old!

Born on 30th July 1936 down in Lettsworth, Louisiana, the one and only Buddy Guy is celebrating his 85th Birthday today.

"Guitar Legends do not come any better than Buddy Guy. He is feted by his peers and loved by his fans for his ability to make the guitar both talk and cry the blues. Such is Buddy's mastery of the guitar that there is virtually no guitarist that he cannot imitate." - Bill Wyman, former Bassist of The Rolling Stones.

Buddy Guy may have had to wait many years before he achieved some mainstream success but back in the 60's he was touted as one of the finest Bluesmen by the likes of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix (who stole a few of Buddy's moves), Jimmy Page and has influenced the likes of Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer along the way.

By the age of 21 (1957) he had moved to Chicago and in 1958 managed to get a record deal with the Cobra subsidiary, Artistic. He released two singles ('Sit and Cry (The Blues)' in 1958' and 'You Sure Can't Do' in 1959), the second featuring Ike Turner on guitar. He was signed by Chess Records in 1959 and became the House Guitarist at the label. He recorded as a session guitarist alongside a number of the greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson. He did release a dozen or so singles on Chess between 1960 - 1969, but only one album for Chess Records, 'I Left My Blues in San Francisco', which was released in 1967.

It was probably around 1979 or 1980 that I first started trawling shops for old Blues records. I was only 16 going on 17 and while I had heard some Blues before I had never really taken much of an interest in the artists who performed it until The Blues Band and Nine Below Zero began playing at The Marquee Club in Wardour Street. I was keen to discover many of the original artists and the name Buddy Guy kept coming up so I checked him out by finding some albums he had done with Junior Wells and some of the recordings he had appeared on while on Chess Records. They were not exactly easy things to find from what I recall. Fast forwards to 1991 and I was listening to Richard Skinner one Saturday Afternoon and he played 'Damn' Right I Got The Blues' and said that it was from a new album by Buddy Guy. I can remember rushing out to see if I could find a copy and being absolutely blown away by it. He was touring the album and had a date in Glasgow and I managed to get a ticket. Support act for the night was a fella called John Campbell (who was brilliant and I was transfixed by the sheer power and emotion of his set). B.B. King and Dion DiMucci were probably the oldest artists I had ever seen at this point in my life and here was another one who seemed to have lived the kind of life he was singing about. There was no pomp, no believing he was above everyone else just because he was on stage but just a depth of gratefulness that he had the opportunity to share some songs he and others had written among a company of friends who would understand.

Ever since that concert and album I haven't missed a new record of his and he rarely has disappointed. It's great that he is still playing and making music and he's getting the recognition he deserves (half a dozen Grammy Awards is nothing to turn your nose up at, is it!). Hope he has a great 85th Birthday and long may the Blues continue. Here's a wee show from 1992 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival of Buddy Guy in action, enjoy.

Part 2

Monday, 7 June 2021

The Howlin' Wolf Album - Howlin' Wolf (1969)

This is an album I don't actually have in my collection but I think I am going to track it down. I stumbled on it thanks to Patrick Carney of The Black Keys in a recent interview with Andrew Perry for Mojo (#332). He mentioned it as one of his favourites and I was quite taken with the album cover, which I thought was a hilarious way to market a new album.

Apparently Howlin' Wolf didn't like this album of Psychedelic Blues too much and for bizzare reasons Cadet Concept (a subsidiary of Chess Records), the label it was released on 1969 decided to use the album cover to convey that with the words 'This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album. He Doesn't Like It. He Didn't Like His Electric Guitar At First Either.' in very bold lettering on the front cover! According to Chess, the album's cover hurt its sales. Chess states that "I used negativity in the title, and it was a big lesson: You can't say on the cover that the artist didn't like the album. It didn't really sell that well. But it was just an attempt. They were just experiments." Howlin' Wolf stated that the album was "dog shit", which again wouldn't have drummed up sales for it!

So let's have a listen to the album track by track. It's mainly Willie Dixon songs but it includes three songs by Chester Burnett (AKA as Howlin' Wolf). Enjoy.