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By Liam Sullivan
The blues is the only music genre that describes a universal human emotion or condition. When someone says, “I got the blues,” we all know what that means. Say it in any language; it still comes out the same. Everyone gets them blues, from time to time.
Capturing that emotion can be difficult, but with a simple six string guitar, and the right lyric, it can be transformative, uplifting our heaviest burdens, in song.
Ultimately, the blues is about struggle, and about that love that just done you wrong.
Bluesman Buddy Guy has personified that feeling through his music for decades and on Friday, July 5, he will bring his music to East Hampton for a performance at Guild Hall. This is not the first time he has performed on the East End, as you will soon see.
Born a sharecropper’s son in Lettsworth, Louisiana, George “Buddy” Guy started his blues career in Chicago, a move he made after making a solo demo recording of his song “Baby Don’t You Want to Come Home” in Baton Rouge, at local radio station, WXOK, in 1957.
Chicago was a far cry from Mr. Guy’s humble beginnings where he worked on the family farm and lived in a small wooden house with no running water or electricity. However, it didn’t take long for the blues community in Chicago to take notice of his guitar playing, and his wild persona, on stage.
Before leaving Louisiana, he met a local blues artist named Guitar Slim whose claim to fame was to start every gig from outside a blues venue, with a long patch chord plugged into his guitar stretching all the way to his amp, inside the club. Guitar Slim’s combination of delivering a visceral blues guitar lick, without any visual front man on stage, not only got the crowd riled up, but would leave a lasting impression on Mr. Guy. As the saying goes, amateurs borrow, professionals steal, and pretty soon Mr. Guy was opening his gigs from outside the blues clubs in Chicago, as well.
For the first few years in Chicago, he was a struggling musician. He had “mad chops,” as the saying goes, and was a tremendous showman, but his assent to becoming America’s leading blues guru, would be long and arduous.
One night after playing a gig at a small club on Chicago’s South Side, his future, as an unknown blues cat, would change forever. It was the night he met Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters was blues royalty, not only in Chicago, but around the world. His record deal with Chess, run by Leonard Chess, was the place to be for any aspiring blues musician in Chicago, at that time.
After meeting Muddy Waters, Mr. Guy started doing session work at Chess records for practically no money. However, his sphere of influence during that time grew substantially, meeting blues legends Willie Dixon, Otis Redding, John Lee Hooker, and B.B. King. Regardless, Leonard Chess was unwilling to sign Buddy to his label. Mr. Guy’s guitar playing was just too wild for Mr. Chess’s taste.
In hindsight, most aficionados agree that Mr. Guy’s approach to the blues and his guitar playing, back in the late ’50s and early ’60s, was ahead of its time, ushering in a new form of modern blues that would influence an entire generation of guitar players around the world.
However, the real culprit, besides Leonard Chess, that kept Mr. Guy from spreading his wings musically and making money, was none other than Willie Dixon.
Mr. Dixon was a Chess artist and producer, and he knew all the tricks-of-the-trade to rip off musicians with aplomb and Mr. Guy was one of many.
By the mid-1960s the music landscape of America and the world, demographically, went through a massive change. It was a revival of sorts that had young men and women embracing not only rock and roll and folk, but the cornerstone of it all, American blues.
Seizing on that opportunity, Mr. Dixon booked Mr. Guy for a few shows in London. Upon arrival, guitar greats Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck—who were already revered in that town—swooned around Mr. Guy, who was still struggling to make a living from his music in the States.
But all of that was about to change.
Through his session work at Chess records, he met Junior Wells, a well-known Chess records artist and harmonica player.
Their collaboration would prove to be the most successful blues duo in history. Or, as Mr. Guy once put it, “We was just good grits and gravy.” Their album “Hoodoo Man Blues” is still considered one of the greatest blues albums of all time, along with their live recording “Drinkin’ TNT ‘N’ Smokin’ Dynamite.”
In the summer of July 1988, that “good grits and gravy” pulled into Amagansett to play a gig at the Stephen Talkhouse.
“The place was packed, and standing by the front door watching was Mick Jagger, from the Stones,” Peter Honerkamp, owner of the Talkhouse, recalled recently. “Buddy and Junior were doing their thing, tearing the place apart, with their music, when all of a sudden Buddy, wailing on his guitar, started making his way through the crowd for the exit.
“He walked right by Jagger and left the club. He was playing a cordless guitar, so his guitar sound was in the club, but Buddy was on the sidewalk playing away.”
That visceral performance Mr. Guy had witnessed years ago with Guitar Slim was no doubt channeling through him that night at the Talkhouse.
“All of a sudden Buddy makes his way into the street and puts his thumb out to hitch a ride, and someone picked him up,” Mr. Honerkamp said with his face glowing with cherub delight.
“Buddy made it as far as Brent’s,” said Mr. Honerkamp, referring to a nearby market, “before he got let off. So, we had to send a car to pick Buddy up and bring him back to the Talkhouse to finish the gig.”
Since then Buddy Guy has gone on to win eight Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by his long-time friends Eric Clapton and B.B. King in 2005. Coming full circle Mr. Guy opened his own blues joint in Chicago in 1989. Called Legends, it showcases the best blues acts in the country.
The signature polka-dot Fender Stratocaster guitar Mr. Guy plays is in memory of his mother. He promised her that when he made it “big” he would buy her a polka-dot Cadillac. She passed away before her son ever got the chance to make good on his promise.
On Friday, July 5, at 8 p.m., at Guild Hall, Buddy Guy will take the stage at 82 years of age. If you happen to run into him at Brent’s, then you’ll know the gig is going great.
Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street, East Hampton. For details on his show visit guildhall.org. To learn more about Buddy Guy, visit buddyguy.com.
Staff Writer on Jun 28, 2019