Buddy Guy: Caretaker of the Blues
Caretaker of the blues. That's what Buddy Guy calls himself these days.
The 62-year-old Chicago guitarist is one of the last of a distinguished line of blues players that got their start in the Windy City in the seminal days of the 1950s. That makes him feel like a man with a mission – both to keep the blues alive and to introduce young people to the music.
"If you'd have asked me a year ago, I'd say there was only a handful of us left, " Guy said in a phone interview from a hotel in Ohio Wednesday. "Now we lost Luther (Allison), Junior (Wells), Johnny Copeland, Fenton Robinson. I looked around and I said, "The hand's not full anymore, man,' so I got a load on my shoulders now. And I'm going to try to do the best I can as long as I can."
One of the ways he's doing that now is as headline act in the House of Blues Highway 61 Tour, which lands at the La Crosse Center for a one-night performance Monday. The show includes sets by Guy, a skilled guitarist in a variety of blues and rock styles, 63-year-old Chicago blues harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold and the southern gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, formed by Clarence Fountain in 1939. The concert also includes multimedia forays into the history of the blues, one of the earliest American roots music styles.
Guy, who performs with the gospel group as one part of the show, said it's a treat to be able to blend these two styles on this tour.
"I think they're kind of closely related, " he said. "From what I have learned through my lifetime, spiritual and blues is probably one of the oldest musics out there. I come from the type of music they're playing, and when they play behind me, we don't have drums or nothing, I just play the acoustic guitar. At one time, I used to see a lot of spiritual groups just making the music with their voices, clapping on their hips or their knees or whatever. I was born on a farm and it just takes me way back."
Guy is originally from Lettsworth, Louisiana, and got his first guitar – it had only two strings – at age 16. He learned to play listening to a weekly radio show that featured bluesmen like B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.
"No one ever sat me down and showed me the right way to play the damn thing," he said. "I'd probably be better than what I am if they had." Not that it's hurt his reputation in the field any – Guy has won four Grammy awards for his blues albums and songs. Making a career out of music hasn't always been easy, though. In fact, when he moved to Chicago in 1957, he didn't even intend to play music for a living.
"I wasn't dreaming of being a professional musician because I knew they had some great people there in Chicago, man," he said. "Listening to Lightnin' and B.B. and Muddy and them, I didn't never think I could learn how to play like that, didn't think I could sing well enough for anybody to listen to me. So I went to Chicago just trying to find ordinary bus-driving, service station work or whatever I could get. I got stranded in Chicago in the strangest club one night and we played (the John Lee Hooker song) "Boogie Chillun.' Next thing I know, the guys were hiring, and from that day to this I've been listening and learning and trying to be my best."
His music career, however, hasn't always been as lucrative as it is now. For almost 10 years, he had no recording contract.
"It hasn't been good for me all the time," Guy said. "Being a black man and playing blues – I don't lie, it's 10 times harder. You know, even Jimi Hendrix had to move away from here to achieve. He went to England and they accepted him. In the late '50s and '60s, most all the black guys started going to Europe and that's when we got recognized. Even though Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf and them were making Leonard Chess' Chess Records rich, it was a predominately black music thing then, all blues clubs. In the '60s, when the Stones, the Beatles, and Cream and all those people came out, then the dollars started rolling for the late Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf."
And for him as well? "Yeah," he laughs. "I went from $8 to $12 a night."
Times are better these days, but Guy doesn't forget what it was like. "I told my guys last night on the bus, I played so long for nothing I thought that's what it was all about, " he said.
No matter what the financial rewards, Guy said he'll continue to play the music he grew up with – retirement is not an option.
"I'm not going to quit because I play for the love of music anyway," he said. "I played for years and years and I didn't see no daylight at the end of the tunnel. Finally, I saw a flashlight."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now in his 80s, Buddy Guy is still introducing new generations to the blues at his Wabash Avenue club, Buddy Guy's Legends. With David Ritz as co-author, he published his autobiography, When I Left Home, in March 2013. Alli Carlisle interviewed Guy about the book for New City.
The 62-year-old Chicago guitarist is one of the last of a distinguished line of blues players that got their start in the Windy City in the seminal days of the 1950s. That makes him feel like a man with a mission – both to keep the blues alive and to introduce young people to the music.
"If you'd have asked me a year ago, I'd say there was only a handful of us left, " Guy said in a phone interview from a hotel in Ohio Wednesday. "Now we lost Luther (Allison), Junior (Wells), Johnny Copeland, Fenton Robinson. I looked around and I said, "The hand's not full anymore, man,' so I got a load on my shoulders now. And I'm going to try to do the best I can as long as I can."
One of the ways he's doing that now is as headline act in the House of Blues Highway 61 Tour, which lands at the La Crosse Center for a one-night performance Monday. The show includes sets by Guy, a skilled guitarist in a variety of blues and rock styles, 63-year-old Chicago blues harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold and the southern gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, formed by Clarence Fountain in 1939. The concert also includes multimedia forays into the history of the blues, one of the earliest American roots music styles.
Guy, who performs with the gospel group as one part of the show, said it's a treat to be able to blend these two styles on this tour.
"I think they're kind of closely related, " he said. "From what I have learned through my lifetime, spiritual and blues is probably one of the oldest musics out there. I come from the type of music they're playing, and when they play behind me, we don't have drums or nothing, I just play the acoustic guitar. At one time, I used to see a lot of spiritual groups just making the music with their voices, clapping on their hips or their knees or whatever. I was born on a farm and it just takes me way back."
Guy is originally from Lettsworth, Louisiana, and got his first guitar – it had only two strings – at age 16. He learned to play listening to a weekly radio show that featured bluesmen like B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.
"No one ever sat me down and showed me the right way to play the damn thing," he said. "I'd probably be better than what I am if they had." Not that it's hurt his reputation in the field any – Guy has won four Grammy awards for his blues albums and songs. Making a career out of music hasn't always been easy, though. In fact, when he moved to Chicago in 1957, he didn't even intend to play music for a living.
"I wasn't dreaming of being a professional musician because I knew they had some great people there in Chicago, man," he said. "Listening to Lightnin' and B.B. and Muddy and them, I didn't never think I could learn how to play like that, didn't think I could sing well enough for anybody to listen to me. So I went to Chicago just trying to find ordinary bus-driving, service station work or whatever I could get. I got stranded in Chicago in the strangest club one night and we played (the John Lee Hooker song) "Boogie Chillun.' Next thing I know, the guys were hiring, and from that day to this I've been listening and learning and trying to be my best."
His music career, however, hasn't always been as lucrative as it is now. For almost 10 years, he had no recording contract.
"It hasn't been good for me all the time," Guy said. "Being a black man and playing blues – I don't lie, it's 10 times harder. You know, even Jimi Hendrix had to move away from here to achieve. He went to England and they accepted him. In the late '50s and '60s, most all the black guys started going to Europe and that's when we got recognized. Even though Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf and them were making Leonard Chess' Chess Records rich, it was a predominately black music thing then, all blues clubs. In the '60s, when the Stones, the Beatles, and Cream and all those people came out, then the dollars started rolling for the late Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf."
And for him as well? "Yeah," he laughs. "I went from $8 to $12 a night."
Times are better these days, but Guy doesn't forget what it was like. "I told my guys last night on the bus, I played so long for nothing I thought that's what it was all about, " he said.
No matter what the financial rewards, Guy said he'll continue to play the music he grew up with – retirement is not an option.
"I'm not going to quit because I play for the love of music anyway," he said. "I played for years and years and I didn't see no daylight at the end of the tunnel. Finally, I saw a flashlight."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now in his 80s, Buddy Guy is still introducing new generations to the blues at his Wabash Avenue club, Buddy Guy's Legends. With David Ritz as co-author, he published his autobiography, When I Left Home, in March 2013. Alli Carlisle interviewed Guy about the book for New City.
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