Saturday, June 13, 2009

Buddy Guy


It's Saturday night, let me introduce you to Mr. Buddy Guy. You've met?
I had a very good friend when I lived in Detroit who was a brilliant young guitarist, Larry Carsman, who went on to have a career in music in Boston.
He introduced me to a lot of great music and the guitarist Buddy Guy, in particular.
Buddy is a double threat performer, let's say a triple threat performer. He is probably the technically greatest blues guitarist around. Just ask Eric Clapton.
But Buddy is a great vocalist as well. He is also an electrifying performer.

I first saw him at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in 1967 and it was an incredible emotional experience I will never forget. He had a Strat and a beat up amplifier covered in patterned contact paper, a great drummer, bassist and two saxophone players.
He also had a 50 foot guitar cord.
Buddy liked to mingle with the audience while he played.
He worked the crowd like a preacher and it was a show that no one wanted to end. At one point, he unplugged the guitar, kept singing with the sax players and the entire crowd clapping in rythmn followed him dancing out the doors of the ballroom into the street, then back inside, plugged in the guitar and finished the song.
I have never seen anything like it before or after.

The good news about Buddy is that he is still playing and singing great music and has had his own club in Chicago for years. He has been a mover and priomal force in American music and has been a major influence on a few generations of guitarists.

2 comments:

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Microdot,
What great guitar work. I am going to have to request from my local library for CDs to looking into Buddy some more. I remember the name from long ago, just not any of the music.

Unknown said...

I've heard of him too, but I can't remember when or where. He's great and the description of the show you saw in '67 was super.