Buddy Turns 90!!

Buddy Guy turned 90 on July 30th.  That's pretty amazing in itself, but the fact that the man continues to produce excellent music via new album releases or live performance is even more amazing.  I think his most recent release, Ain't Done With The Blues, might be his best release in at least 15 years.  He's still as much a force of nature on the guitar and vocals as he's ever been, still performing with a zest and energy that belies his advancing years.  He even gained a lot of attention appearing in last year's horror flick Sinners and getting a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance at this year's Oscars. 

We've written about Buddy Guy multiple times here at Friday Blues Fix, as you can see by a search of the blog.  Before you look, I apologize for some of the older posts that have messed up fonts.....I haven't figured out how to fix those....and also for those with videos that no longer play or audio clips that no longer play.....the audio clips are a major bone of contention for me since I put them on a site to share and the site shut down without allowing me to keep those files.  I haven't had time to go through all 500-something posts to make corrections, but I'm working on it......the texts within is still okay, but may be hard to read on some of the posts due to the goofy font changes.

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - 1969 at Ann Arbor

Since we've covered him as much as we have, I thought I would skip the life story, which can be found on a couple of posts and just discuss Buddy Guy in general.  I have seen him probably as many times as I've seen any other blues artist, several times over a 20-25 year span, and he was one of the first blues guitarists I ever heard of, after B.B. King and Robert Johnson.  In articles and books about Eric Clapton, he referred to Buddy Guy numerous times, so I really wanted to hear more about him.

Back in those pre-internet days, information was hard to find and the blues itself had just started enjoying its resurgence after artists like SRV, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Robert Cray began to become popular.  Once that happened, some music magazines began putting blues artists on their covers and publishing articles about them.  I finally tracked down some information on Guy via a couple of magazines in the late 80's......Living Blues and Guitar Player, both of which featured cover stories on Guy.

Also in the late 80's, MCA Records began reissuing some of Chess Records' old albums.  They started with releases from Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry (at least these were the first ones I happened to see).  They also began releasing a six volume set call The Blues that really opened my eyes and ears to the Chess Records lineup and catalog.  These volumes were where I first heard Buddy Guy and Volume 1 included his song "First Time I Met The Blues."  This tune was written by Little Brother Montgomery, who played piano on the track, and was released in 1960 as a single by Chess.  All in all, it was a pretty good introduction to Buddy Guy as a singer and guitarist and it certainly made me want to hear more.

Fortunately, additional reissues started appearing and various collections, such as Atlantic Blues: Chicago, which included several tracks teaming Guy with longtime partner Junior Wells, several reissues from Vanguard Records, including his wonderful A Man and the Blues (with Otis Spann on piano) and the incredible anthology set Chicago!  The Blues!  Today!, and also Delmark Records' albums, including Hoodoo Man Blues, both teaming Guy with Wells.  Chess Records also began reissuing some of their Buddy Guy collections.  One of my favorite finds at the time, at least in my more rock music-oriented days, was Alligator Records' reissue of Guy's album Stone Crazy!, originally released as The Blues Giant on the French label Isabel.  

However, like most blues artists at the time (late 80's), Guy hadn't released any new product in several years, so I tried to round up everything that I could find.  This was a trend that I ended up following for several artists and the digging deeper into the blues really expanded my listening and my knowledge of what was out there.  I really enjoyed this aspect of the blues....I was sort of a hunter-gatherer in the blues aisles at whatever record store I could find.

Of course, again fueled by the sudden resurgence in the popularity of the blues, Buddy Guy did get to record new material, beginning in 1991 with Damn Right I Got The Blues for Silvertone Records.  By this time, I'd been able to see Guy live, first with Junior Wells at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1989 and with his band at the Chunky Rhythm and Blues Festival on a hot July evening in 1990.  At Chunky, my future wife and I managed to make it all the way to the front of the stage to see him in all of his electric blues guitar glory.  

On his return to the studio, I was delighted to hear one of the best songs that he performed at Chunky that night, an almost-frantic cover of Eddie Boyd's "Five Long Years" that sounded just as good as it did on the stage the previous year.  The album was loaded with covers or updated versions of songs Guy had cut previously, but that was okay because a lot of people were hearing these songs for the first time by Guy.  It was also loaded with guest stars (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, The Memphis Horns, etc...), but it was nearly impossible to upstage Buddy Guy on this return engagement.

Since 1991, Guy has released sixteen additional albums of new material, thirteen studio and three live (one acoustic with Junior Wells, and one that included three studio tracks).  And while there were some of these (Slippin' In, Last Time Around - Live at Legends, Sweet Tea, Born to Play Guitar, and Ain't Done With the Blues) that I liked more than others, they were all good quality releases, but the ones above are the ones that I play most often.  I think Guy has settled in nicely with his current producer/songwriter/drummer Tom Hambridge.  I think Hambridge really "gets" Guy as far as a songwriter goes and the production is an ideal fit for the blues and rock audiences that hear Guy these days.  

That being said, I actually prefer the earlier stuff when I choose to listen to Buddy Guy these days.  I wasn't necessarily this way when I first started listening to him, but I've sort of moved back to the earlier recordings from the Chess and Vanguard (Guy's time with Chess and Vanguard is a bit inconsistent because they really didn't know how to utilize him, but the good stuff is great and the lesser material is still solid, but maybe dated by today's standards) sessions, plus his work with Junior Wells that was released by Atlantic in the early 70's, their various Montreux shows, and on Evidence Records.  The two of them complimented each other so well.  

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his current releases.....I think I've listened to Ain't Done With the Blues more than any of his newer releases other than Slippin' In, but he was in a bit of a slump before teaming up with Hambridge and I don't really think it was his fault as much as people/record companies/record execs/etc....trying to take him away from what he did best.  Hambridge has more or less taken the best of the early Buddy Guy and combined it with what modern audiences like to hear without compromising his talent.....even the guest stars on selected cuts usually works really well.

Buddy Guy and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram

I actually got to see him live around 2012 and it was an interesting audience.  Guy played at the MSU-Riley Center in Meridian.  Some of the Riley Center season ticket holders at that time were older folks who usually came to make an appearance, stayed about an hour and silently slipped out.  Well, Guy came out blasting, guitar screaming, drums crashing, screaming the vocals....the band was pumped up.  I've never seen so many blue-haired ladies making their way out of the theatre after five-ten minutes.  He was 76 when he appeared at the Riley Center, probably older than some of the departing audience, and bounced around the stage like he was 20 years younger.

My point is that we are very fortunate to have Buddy Guy still with us.  There have been a few blues artists who made as long or longer than him, but he still plays with an energy and enthusiasm that's palpable to his audience and that's probably what attracted a lot of us to his music in the first place.  It's still there.  He's a direct link, one of the few left, to the Chicago blues scene of the 1950's.  That's really hard to believe for someone who started listening to the blues some 40 years ago, but he's one of the last sources.  We're lucky to have him.

I really miss a lot of others who have passed away....I still really miss B.B. King and Junior Wells for sure, and Luther Allison was another favorite.  The Rolling Stones are still making music into their early 80's, but I'm not really sure that they will be when/if their 90's roll around....you never can tell.  Meanwhile, Buddy Guy rolls on like Old Man River.  Happy Birthday, Buddy!!  Hope to see you and hear you for many more years to come!!

Three Essential Recordings: Buddy Guy

Friday Blues Fix is introducing a new topic this week called Three Essential Recordings.  This is not just for newcomers to the blues, but for longtime blues fans as well.  We will look at a particular artist and select, in our opinion, three albums that will serve as a fine introduction for new fans and lead longtime fans to go back and find one that they might have missed.  Next week, we will be discussing a recent blues-related journey that we undertook, but for now, let's get started with three essential recordings for Buddy Guy.

Most blues fans are familiar with Buddy Guy, who's served as a big influence for a lot of guitarists over the years.  In the early 80's, I was a huge fan of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, both of whom covered Guy songs on their albums.  However, I didn't actually get to hear Buddy Guy until MCA started reissuing the Chess Records catalogs in the mid 80's, via their The Blues anthology series.  Eventually, I tracked down some of his recordings with Junior Wells and finally his own reissued recordings.  In the early 90's, after the resurgence of the blues genre, Guy began releasing new material and continues to do so.

All of Guy's recording have great moments.....he manages to still sound inspired as he approaches his mid 80's.  For these Three Essentials, we opted to capture his best moments at various periods of his career.  If you happen to feel differently from our choices, well, that's your choice and we invite you to share your Three Essentials in the Comments below.

Okay......for starters, these Essentials will be of Guy by himself, we will look at his work with Junior Wells down the road a piece.  These are three great options to really catch the work of Buddy Guy over the span of his career.

Buddy's Blues (Chess/MCA):  Guy enjoyed a lengthy tenure with Chess, both as a session guitarist and as a front man.  Buddy's Blues captures the cream of those recordings, a crisp and concise 15-song set of Guy at his absolute best.  Most fans will have heard these songs, either by Guy or by someone else.  This is what all the fuss was about for those up-and-coming rock and blues-rock guitarists who cite Guy as a major influence.  This is the place for newcomers because each song here (even the one where he's backing vocalist Lacy Gibson with some superb guitar work) is a keeper and the sound is wonderful.

A Man and The Blues (Vanguard):  This recording was a couple of years after his Chess recordings (1968), but it captures Guy in a more relaxed and understaed mood, both as a singer and guitarist.  Backed by a tight, TIGHT band that includes the great Otis Spann on piano, Wayne Bennett on rhythm guitar, Fred Below on drums, and Jack Myers on bass, along with three saxophonists, Guy works through a great nine-song set that includes two of my favorite Guy slow burners, B.B. King's "Sweet Little Angel" and Mercy Dee Walton's "One Room Country Shack," and "Mary Had A Little Lamb.  I've had this album in various formats since 1987, the year I started listening to the blues, and I still play it regularly.

Slippin' In (Silvertone Records):  When Guy signed with ilvertone in the early 90's, I remember being excited because over time, I had managed to track down a lot of his earlier releases, solo and with Junior Wells, and I just knew he would make a big splash.  

Well, he did, but his first couple of efforts were mixed bags to me.....I just don't enjoy the "guest star" format that a lot of labels do when they sign blues artists....I know I'm probably in the minority here for sure, but I feel like it ends up not really being the star's album.  Guy was such a force of nature that it didn't happen that frequently, but his albums ended up having more of a pop/rock feel than blues sometimes.  Slippin' In came out in '94, and I almost didn't buy it because I was disappointed in Guy's previous release (Feels Like Rain), but I'm glad I did because to these ears, it's his best effort start to finish of his 90's and beyond releases.  He does have a few guest stars (Double Trouble's Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton on some tracks and pianist Johnnie Johnson), but they are versed in the blues through and through and Guy really shines on this set.  

There are a few runners-up.......I Was Walking Through The Woods, Stone Crazy, Sweet Tea, Live at the Checkerboard, and the Rhino collection The Very Best of Buddy Guy, but these three albums are the first ones I reach for when I want to hear Buddy Guy at his finest.  As stated above, your mileage may vary, so if they do, let us know in the Comments.

Recommended Reading - When I Left Home - My Story

I started listening to the blues seriously in the mid 1980's, and as I listened to various blues artists (and blues/rock artists), I also read about them.  Many of the guitarists I read about, such as Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, cited similar musical influences, including Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy.

Buddy Guy showed up on many guitarists' lists.  They all mentioned his showmanship, but they talked more about what he played.  I remember one of them saying that he was "Hendrix before there was a Hendrix."  I had been listening to Jimi Hendrix since my last year of high school and had picked up several of his compilations.  He was an amazing talent, for sure, but this talk of Guy being "Hendrix before Hendrix" really piqued my curiosity.

Unfortunately, being curious was about all I could do because I couldn't find very many recordings of him.  Being a college student on a tight budget, it wasn't like I could hit the mail order circuit at the time and the local record stores near home and at school didn't have the biggest blues sections either, so it took me a while to track any of his recordings down.  I did hear other artists cover his songs, like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but I wanted to hear the original....the source.

I managed to find a few here and there on various collections.....Chess had started reissuing a few compilations and Atlantic Records had issued a four-volume series of their huge blues catalog that featured some tracks with Guy and Junior Wells.  I liked what I heard, but really wanted to hear more before I formed a definite opinion.

I finally managed to track down a few albums, a pretty wide-ranging set.  I first picked up Stone Crazy, Guy's recording done in France with his brother, Phil that was picked up domestically by Alligator, then the Guy/Wells Blind Pig collaboration, Drinkin' TNT & Smokin' Dynamite.  After those, I found one of my favorites, Vanguard's A Man & The Blues, then MCA Records reissued a couple of his Chess albums.

B.B. King and Buddy Guy

In a matter of a few months, I had a pretty good idea of how Buddy Guy sounded. The Chess recordings were more restrained.  There were flashes of brilliance on the occasional song ("Leave My Girl Alone," "Stone Crazy," "Let Me Love You," "First Time I Met The Blues," etc...), but there was also a lot of material that was geared more toward R&B that really didn't suit Guy.  I much preferred A Man & The Blues (discussed here) and the manic energy of Stone Crazy.

When I got to see Buddy Guy live, just prior to his big early 90's comeback, it was a mixed bag.  At JazzFest in the late 80's with Junior Wells, I was really impressed with his playing and his overall manner onstage.  When I saw him solo, just over a year later, he was sort of frustrating as he stopped playing songs in the middle, jumping to something else and just generally treating it as a big goof.  He did catch fire on "Five Long Years," but it wasn't enough for me, as far as that show went.  Hopefully, I just caught him on a bad night.




Of course, since then, he has really taken off.  He released his breakthrough, Damn Right I've Got The Blues, right after that and has enjoyed lots of success since then.  Now, there is plenty of Buddy Guy product out there.  He releases a new disc every couple of years, plus most of his old releases are still available.  He appears on TV, whether it's the late night circuit or appearances on the Food Network with Emeril.  He's won countless BMA's and Grammy Awards.   Probably after B.B. King, he's the most beloved living blues man out there.

It only makes sense that at the height of his fame and fortune, Guy would write his autobiography.  Really, there's not a more appropriate time for When I Left Home to hit the bookstores.  I was looking forward to reading it, mainly because Guy was collaborating with David Ritz.  Ritz has assisted with several excellent musical biographies and autobiographies, including Ray Charles (Brother Ray), Etta James (Rage To Survive), B.B. King (Blues All Around Me), the Neville Brothers (The Brothers), and Marvin Gaye (the biography, Divided Soul).  Ritz does a fantastic job of letting the artists tell their stories, and they really seem to open up to his approach.

Guy begins in Louisiana, working in the fields with his parents.  He talks warmly about his mother, who battled health problems, but never stopped loving her son, and his father, who encouraged him when he developed an interest in music and playing guitar.  He came from a loving family who worked hard to help him achieve, sending him to live with his sister in Baton Rouge to help him earn a better living.  Guy also talks about the mysterious stranger who bought him his first guitar and his greatest influence as a guitarist and performer, Guitar Slim (the subject of a future FBF post).

Guy developed as a musician well enough to record a demo and received enough encouragement to pursue his dream in Chicago.  We experience the ups and downs Guy encountered after settling in Chicago..his frustration at finding a job, and, finally, his opportunity to play his music.  Though he was doing what he'd always wanted to do, it was still a struggle making ends meet with a growing family, low-paying wages at gigs and in the recording studio, and unscrupulous people in the music business.

To me, the best part of When I Left Home is when Guy talks about his fellow blues men....Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Earl Hooker, Magic Sam, Little Walter, B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Spann, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters.  There are dozens of anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book, some sad, some frightening, several hilarious, and all entertaining.

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells

Of course, there are several sections devoted to Guy's longtime partner and friend, Junior Wells (a relationship we discussed here).  The two worked together for nearly 20 years, but their relationship was tempestuous at times.  Guy really doesn't pull any punches dealing with any of his musical associates, particularly Wells, Dixon, Waters, Chess Records boss Leonard Chess, and several others.  At the same time, he acknowledges his debt to each of them for helping to make him the artist and legend that he is.

He also talks fondly of the artists who have been influenced by his music, such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and Janis Joplin.  The sections recalling Vaughan's death at Alpine Valley, and Waters' decline and death are especially poignant.

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Buddy Guy

If you're not a fan of Buddy Guy's before you read When I Left Home, you will be before you finish reading it.  Guy has a real knack for telling these stories and you get the feeling that he's talking to you.  Though he comes off as flashy and sometimes cocky onstage, you don't get a lot of that in this book.  If you are a fan of the post-war Chicago blues and even the modern era blues, you will want to read this book.

Essential Recordings: Buddy Guy - A Man & The Blues

One of the neat things about starting a blues collection when I did in the mid 80's was that there was very little chance of making an unwise investment.  At the time, most blues sections in record stores consisted of about two rows of LPs, CDs, or cassettes, and most of those selections were from familiar names......B. B. King, of course, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, maybe some Lightnin' Hopkins or John Lee Hooker on the traditional side, then you had Bobby Bland, Little Milton, Lattimore, Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle, and Bobby Rush on the soul side.  There were also usually several albums from Alligator Records (Albert Collins, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack) and Hightone (Robert Cray, Joe Louis Walker, Otis Rush) and Rounder or Black Top Records (Johnny Copeland, Roomful of Blues, Ronnie Earl, Duke Robillard). 

Now, as you look over that list of artists, you'd be hard-pressed to think of any bad releases from any of them.  Everything I picked up in the stores or via mail order was something new and incredible that made me want to hear more music just like it.  How cool is it to strike gold every time you go digging???!!!



Buddy Guy


One such time occurred in October of 1987.  I remember it because I had just finished taking a grueling eight-hour engineering exam and was unwinding a little bit before making the ninety-minute drive home.  I decided to hit one of the malls in town and check out a record store.  I had not been in this one since I started listening to the blues, so I wasn't even sure if they had a blues section, but they did.  They had several selections from a record company I was not familiar with called Vanguard Records.  I picked up a couple of cassettes from the label......one from Junior Wells and one from Buddy Guy.  I had found several of their songs on some collections from Atlantic and Chess, but had not seen any complete albums by either of them until that night.

The Buddy Guy album was called A Man and the Blues and I had heard nothing about it.  I knew Buddy Guy from mostly reputation.  I had heard that he was a big influence on some of my other favorites (Clapton, Hendrix, etc...), but had only heard a few tracks.  Naturally, I was curious about an entire Buddy Guy album.

Buddy Guy had recorded on a fairly regular basis for Chess Records over the years (1960 - 67), producing classic tracks like "First Time I Met The Blues," "Leave My Girl Alone," "Let Me Love You," "Ten Years Ago," and "My Time After A While."  His vocals were nearly as potent as his no-holds-barred guitar.  He also recorded with many of the other Chess musicians as well as with his friend and musical partner Wells on his essential recording for Delmark, Hoodoo Man Blues.   



Fred Below



When Guy came to Vanguard Records in 1967, his first solo release was A Man and the Blues.  Backing him on the disc were a trio of blues legends.  Rhythm guitarist Wayne Bennett had backed Bobby Bland for years, Fred Below's distinctive jazz-influenced drumming had graced many of Muddy Waters' Chess sides, and Otis Spann was THE Chicago blues pianist, having spent years with Waters' band.  This was indeed an all-star cast! 



Otis Spann


Though this was Guy's first album as a leader, it still ranks with his best.  For years, he has been a fan favorite all over the world for his unbridled performances.  His guitar playing always seemed on the verge of absolute chaos and he was barely able to contain himself as a vocalist either.  To me, all that is well and good, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to turn things to "simmer" for a while and that's exactly what this release does for the most part.  Guy's guitar work is tasteful and even restrained at times....kept to a slow burn for the most part.  There are horns (including A.C. Reed) on several of the R&B-geared tracks ("Money," "Just Play My Axe"), but some of those tracks sound dated today.  The best tracks are the slower ones that feature Guy, Bennett, Spann, and bass player Jack Myers only.  These tracks stand the test of time incredibly well.



The secret weapon of the disc is Otis Spann.  As good as this album is, Spann takes it to a whole new level with his almost-telepathic interplay with Guy.  Spann's style was sparse and economical, but he said more with fewer notes than any piano player.  In his autobiography from the mid 90's, Damn Right I've Got The Blues, Guy discussed the band behind the album, and raved about Spann's presence on the disc.

"This was my favorite lineup:  Wayne Bennett on guitar, Fred Below on drums and Jack Myers on bass.  This was unrehearsed.  We just went in and started playing the blues.  That's how good these guys were.  They could feel what should be played to make the sound right.  Otis Spann was on piano.  He wasn't just saying, "I can outplay you."  He was answering me, expressing the feeling I had when I finished the verse.  Any other piano player on 'One Room Country Shack' would have run me crazy.  He's like just sitting there saying, 'Go ahead and say what you gotta say.  Then, I'll show you how it feels with my fingers.'.......Otis Spann was the best pianist I ever heard.  When he was ready to play on the low keys, he'd take the whole stool, pick it up and go sit down there.  He'd make you feel so good." 

That's not to say that there weren't some good up-tempo tunes as well.  One of the best was "Mary Had a Little Lamb," probably most familiar to modern blues fans as a mainstay in Stevie Ray Vaughan's repetoire, dating back to his debut release, Texas Flood.  Guy's playful version sizzles with intensity, despite the lighthearted lyrical content, and on this track, we hear some of his best, most unrestrained guitar work on the disc.



Best of all is Guy's interpretation of the timeless "Sweet Little Angel."  Though this one was long associated with B.B. King, Buddy Guy OWNED this song after recording this version....no doubt about it.  Spann shines on piano here, as well.  As good as this song has been done by other artists, dating back to Robert Nighthawk's "Sweet Black Angel," this has to be the definitive version.



Over forty years after its release, this album remains one of Buddy Guy's best recordings.  Though his subsequent recordings have usually had more fireworks, none of them possessed the subtlety and beauty of this release.  You can't truly say you've heard Buddy Guy unless you've heard A Man and the Blues.

The Real Blues Brothers

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells

As far as "Blues Brothers" go, Jake and Elwood are mere pretenders to the throne.  In fact, they're probably not even in the Top Five of Blues Brothers all time.  I could think of several others that qualify, even some that are actually brothers (a topic for another day).  Today, we'll discuss a pair that played together, off and on, for nearly forty years, and came as close to being "Blues Brothers" as you possibly can without being related.

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells formed one of the most formidable and longest-lasting partnerships in the blues, their recording history spanning from Wells sitting in on Guy's 1960 session for Chess, which produced memorable tracks like "Let Me Love You," to their swan song as a duo, a live recording at Guy's Legends in the early 90's.  In between, they toured most of the world, opened for the Rolling Stones, recorded with blues legends like Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, and others....and rock stars like Eric Clapton, Dr. John, the J. Geils Band, Bill Wyman.....

Despite their closeness in age (Wells was born in 1934 and Guy in 1936), Junior Wells was considerably more experienced than Guy when they met.  Wells moved to Chicago as a youngster and by the age of eleven, he was playing harmonica in blues clubs throughout the Windy City.  As a youngster, Wells met Memphis native Little Junior Parker, who piqued his interest in harmonica.  He soon teamed up with guitarists Louis and David Myers and drummer Fred Below and their band, the Aces, soon became one of the toughest bands in Chicago, rivalling even the Muddy Waters Band.

Guy actually saw Wells perform as part of a concert given at his high school in Baton Rouge in the early 50's.  By that time, Wells had recorded several of his standard tunes ("Messin' With The Kid," "Hoodoo Man Blues," "Come On In This House") and had replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters' band.  He was not yet twenty years old.

Buddy Guy didn't make it to Chicago until September of 1957.  He had been playing in Louisiana with Raful Neal and he cut a demo, called "Baby Don't You Wanna Come Home" at the Baton Rouge radio station WXOK.  He decided to try his luck in Chicago because that was where the biggest names were playing.  Guy was influenced by two artists as a youngster.....B. B. King and Guitar Slim.  "I wanted to play like B. B. but act like Guitar Slim," he said in his autobiography, Damn Right I've Got The Blues, but it was in Chicago where Guy developed his own distinctive sound. 

There were so many great guitarists in Chicago at the time that Guy initially had difficulty getting work.  Otis Rush gave him one of his first real opportunities at the 708 Club and Guy never looked back.  He eventually gained confidence playing with and against the likes of Rush, Earl Hooker, Louis and David Myers, Magic Sam, Wayne Bennett, and Matt Murphy.

In 1958, there was a "Battle of the Blues" held at The Blue Flame Club.  Competitors included Wells, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Buddy Guy.  Wells nearly carried the day, but according to Howlin' Wolf guitarist Abe "Little Smokey" Smothers, Guy won over the crowd with his theatrics, which included throwing his guitar up in the air and catching with one hand while letting the guitar neck slip down while he squeezed the strings.  This emitted a crying sound that ended his solo.  This led to Guy's recordings for Artistic and Cobra and also backing Magic Sam on some of his Cobra recordings.  He then moved to Chess after Cobra folded.

Soon, Guy and Wells fell in together doing regular gigs at Theresa's and Pepper's and became virtually inseparable.  By the mid 60's, Wells was set to record an album for Robert Koester's Delmark Records, a tiny blues and jazz label in Chicago.  Koester had seen Wells perform with Guy's band and wanted to record them just as they played live.  Koester had a different approach from most record labels at the time, like Leonard Chess, who wanted singles for airplay and a style that would attract teen buyers.  He didn't want the three minute versions of the band's repertoire....he wanted the songs played just as the band played them at Theresa's and Pepper's. 

At first, Wells was hesitant because Delmark was a small jazz-oriented label and he figured the record wouldn't sell that well, but when he approached Guy with it, the guitarist was eager to do it.  Hoodoo Man Blues is considered by many to be the first actual album of blues that was originally intended to be an album, not a collection of singles.  The album proved to be Delmark's biggest seller ever, and continues to sell remarkably well today.  On the original release, Guy was under contract to Chess Records and had to be listed in the credits as "Friendly Chap."  However, once you hear the guitar, there's no doubt who is backing Wells.  Here's an alternate take of the title cut, with some interesting guitar from Guy.  According to Bob Koester, Guy was having problems with his amp, so they amplified his guitar through a Hammond B3 for a couple of tracks, giving it a shimmering, eerie feel. 



That was only the beginning.  The duo continued to record together for Delmark and eventually Vanguard (beginning with four songs on the classic collection, Chicago/The Blues/Today!) in the 60's.  They even toured Africa separately and then as a team.  They also recorded separately with their own bands during this time and both released some of their best recordings with these two labels, including Wells' It's My Life, Baby and Southside Blues Jam (both with Guy on guitar) and Guy's A Man And The Blues (with the immortal Otis Spann on piano).  Here's a cut from their first Vanguard session, "Help Me," Wells' tribute to one of his mentors, Sonny Boy Williamson II."

In the early 70's, Atco Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, brought the two together to record with Eric Clapton behind the board.  Clapton had played with them during their European tour with the Rolling Stones.  Unfortunately, Clapton was deep into his heroin addiction and didn't bring his "A" game to the proceedings.  It should have been the duo's big break, but ended up on the shelf for two years before finally being released with members of the J. Geils Band adding instrumentation to a couple of tracks to make a full album.  Though there are some nice moments on the recording, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play The Blues' main significance was the fact that it's the first album to feature both Guy and Well's names on the album cover with equal billing.  Here's one of the high points of the album, "My Baby She Left Me," another Sonny Boy Williamson song.

The pair continued recording throughout the seventies, for European labels during their regular tours.  They recorded two sets at Montreux, one in 1974 with Bill Wyman and Pinetop Perkins that was released by Blind Pig as Drinkin' TNT 'N' Smokin' Dynamite, and the other in 1977 with Jimmy Johnson, Dave Myers, and Odie Payne that was reissued in the U.S. by Evidence Records in the 90's as Live in Montreux.  Better yet was a set recorded in studio in 1979 for Isabel Records called Pleading the Blues.  This stellar set featured Guy and Wells with Buddy's brother Phil on rhythm guitar, J. W. Williams on bass, and Ray "Killer" Allison on drums.  It was recorded at the same time that Buddy Guy used this same band to record Blues Giant, which was later picked up domestically by Alligator and retitled Stone Crazy.  All in all, that was a very productive day for both artists.  Unfortunately Pleading The Blues didn't get issued in the U.S. until the mid 90's, also by Evidence Records.

Over the years, they became like brothers, good friends at times, fierce rivals at others.  There was some artistic differences and some personality clashes.  Buddy Guy probably explained it best in his autobiography:  

"When we was in Boston, the guy from the Globe called up and said, 'I understand you guys don't get along.'  I don't know how they could get that, you know.  As long as I been dealing with this guy, if we didn't get along, you wouldn't see us smiling.  So I don't know how people could look at us and feel like we don't get along.  I just get tired of Junior sometimes.  I look into his face more than I do my wife's." 

Junior Wells had his own thoughts about their friendship:

"I don't have a brother, but Buddy felt like a brother to me after we got into doing things and got messing around, shucking here and shucking there about this and that.  I'll tell Buddy things I won't tell nobody.  Buddy talks to me about things he won't talk to nobody else about because he knows it will go no further than what me and him said."

They played together occasionally in the 80's, when record deals were few and far between.  Guy recorded a few albums for the British label, JSP, in the late 70's and 80's, but Junior was silent on the recording scene for the most part during the 80's.  They did appear at the 1989 JazzFest in New Orleans.  I got to see them at JazzFest.  I never saw Junior Wells perform solo in person except on TV appearances, but I did get to see Guy a couple of years later just before he really hit big with his Silvertone debut in 1991.  While I thought he was good solo, I really thought that they brought out the best in each other when they performed together.  Where Guy could sometimes be undisciplined as a solo, he stayed pretty grounded during the appearance I caught of him with Wells, and on other appearances I've seen on YouTube and other places.  From all accounts, Wells was a pretty tough taskmaster as a bandleader and obviously it rubbed off on Guy when they played together.

As mentioned, Guy's star took off in the 90's, when he scored a deal with Silvertone Records and played in some big venues with the likes of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Wells landed a deal with Telarc in the early 90's, too, and after a couple of disappointments, he really hit his stride with a live disc recorded at Guy's club, Legends, and a disc featuring Wells with a host of slide guitarists.  Soon after, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, suffered a heart attack and lapsed into a coma, passing away in early 1998.

Guy and Wells' recording legacy wasn't finished though.  Fortunately, someone had the foresight to record the duo in an acoustic setting at Legends a few years before, in 1993, and Silvertone released the disc about six months after Wells' death.  It was a fitting farewell to one of the greatest and longest partnerships in the blues.  It had been several years since they played together and they were obviously glad to be doing so again, as evidenced by this cut from the album, a medley of Jimmy Reed tunes called, "Seeds of Reed."

Guy, now 74, still continues to amaze and dazzle.  He's got a new disc, Living Proof, out this week....an autobiographical disc of sorts, that ranks with his best since his return to recording in the 90's.  As for Junior Wells.....even though he's been gone a dozen years now, Delmark is keeping his memory alive with some fantastic live recordings from the 60's and 70's that capture him at his best.  There's lots of product out there for both artists, together and solo.....nearly all of it is worth a listen.