Buddy Guy

Luther Burbank Centre in Santa Rosa 8:00 pm 22 February 2006

Seconds before this legenday Bluesman appears, an unseen
announcer tells us that Buddy will be doing a meet & greet in
the lobby of the hall after the concert.

My dream is fulfilled. I am assured that I will finally get the
photo, archivally printed and processed on fibre based 8x10
paper, that I took of Buddy in 1990 in San Luis Obispo, signed
by this great man.

Buddy Guy opens, after a short introduction and jam by his
band, with an Albert King-ish riffed version of Don Nix's
"Goin' Down" (made famous by the likes of Freddie King and
Jeff Beck) with an arrangement, a mixture very close to
"Crosscut Saw" By Albert King or "Strange Brew" by Cream.





In a 90 minute set, Buddy proved, again, that he has been and
still is the finest performer of Blues music on the map. Though
Albert, Freddie and BB King all gave (BB still does) wonderful
performances, nothing and no one compares to the showmanship
of Buddy Guy.

A Buddy Guy concert is like a history lesson in Blues wherein one
gets an encyclopeadia of "Blues Who's Who" from Buddy when he
offers up a gumbo of Blues influences from the likes of Willie
Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and more.



Buddy can hold an auditorium of people in complete silence as
he nurses his blues and his band down to a whisper, standing
far back from a microphone and singing so softly, playing so
delicately, with sublime nuance of tone and character from his
guitar.

Intermittantly jamming and trading "call and answer" licks
with his keyboard and sax player, Buddy commands complete
and silent attention from a crowd who, to their benefit and
pleasure, remain affixed to this one of a kind legend of the
Blues...one of the very the last of his kind...a veteran Chicago
Bluesman who, incredibly so, is in his prime a 70 years old.





Along the way we get a little "Mary Had A Little Lamb" guitar
lick at the end of a song that reminds me of The Yardbirds'
with Jeff Beck. "Jeff's Boogie" features a fantastic tribute to
Les Paul with dazzling riffs and licks/solos that includes
Jeff's "tip 'o' the hat" to Buddy in a "Mary Had A Little Lamb"
quote within it.




Buddy transcends musical genre's with a variety of styles
and shapes of things, not the least of which is his own
undeniable charm and wit, made even more enjoyable with
stories of his youth, struggle for success in music, and
anecdotes about his interplay with such noted guitar heros
as Eric Clapton ("my good friend") and Jimi Hendrix.





A nice little Cream tribute with some note-for-note guitar
licks that Clapton learned from Albert King, then into a
very, very powerful rendition of Hendrix's "VooDoo Chile"
where Buddy showed those who both knew, and were finding
out for the first time, where Jimi copped those licks in the
first place (let alone that "VooDoo Chile(d) is a take on an
old blues standard) and played with his teeth, and other
such gymnastics that he was the originator of in his live
shows (Jimi copped these too) but Leonard Chess shut down
in the studio recordings.



Buddy, now wireless, walked the isles and balcony jammin'
and singin' for all, even the cheap seats (the rest of us rattled
our jewelry) wearing a nifty and unusual RW&B American Flag
shirt.

Buddy gave his band ample room to move, who were the most
sensitive and attentive band I have ever seen, following his every
move and start, stop, groan and wail with perfection.

This was the first concert My Lady and I had seen since
therollingstones* in November 2005 (her first seeing them
and Buddy) at the Hollywood Bowl, which was GREAT, so
Buddy had a hard act to follow, and boy, did he do it!

Buddy's guitar prowess was never better, never missing a
lick, never a bum note (old timer's will remember that
in the past, Buddy would make blatant mistakes for the
sake of guitar excess to prove himself worthy), but now,
Buddy, like all of us, takes himself much more seriously
as a musician, comfortable in his own shoes, an icon
and hero to all that matter, and can concentrate on his
playing to the point of such perfection that he can
silence a whole room with a slow bend, up and down
tremelo, and a gut wrenching, soul stirring plea and
moan of "Damn Right, I've Got the Blues!"

Buddy now stands by the side of one of his mentors,
Mr. Willie Dixon, and can say:

"I Am The Blues!"





....few others, alive, maybe Otis Rush, can claim a
similar title.

For a great review from another perspetive, see My Love's
review here:

http://shiva2731.blogspot.com/2006/02/buddy-guy.html