Imagine having the blues for nearly a century and all the heavy feelings that must’ve trailed Buddy Guy, the guitar virtuoso who accompanied Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter on recording sessions. He started his solo career with Left My Blues in San Francisco (1967) only to have them return a year later for A Man and the Blues to the point that he embraced the feeling on DJ Play My Blues (1982), Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (1991), and The Blues Is Alive and Well (2018). Even just last year, Guy, who turns 90 next month, released Ain’t Done With the Blues. Clearly the blues aren’t done with him. If you have to live with the blues, why not cheer Guy up with a party?
A who’s who of the blues will celebrate Guy’s singular legacy at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Oct. 1 for an event titled (what else?) Buddy’s Got the Blues. Participants include Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Jon Batiste, Aloe Blacc, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy F. Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Bobby Rush, Isaiah Sharkey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Ally Venable, Willie Weeks, and Kim Wilson.
Guy, he of the endless blues, will also perform. The event’s musical director will be the Rolling Stones’ Steve Jordan and “more legendary artists and special guests,” producers say, are yet to be announced.
“Can’t wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the blues with all my friends,” Guy said in a statement. “We’ll make it a night not just for me, but for the folks who taught us, the friends we’ve played with, and the ones coming up behind us.”
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. ET on Friday. Full details are on a special website for the event.
When Rolling Stone ranked the 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Guy came in Number 27, a validation of a life full of blues. “Guy’s flamboyant playing — huge bends, prominent distortion, frenetic licks — on such classics as ‘Stone Crazy’ and ‘First Time I Met the Blues,; and his collaborations with the late harp master Junior Wells, raised the standard for six-string fury,” the magazine said.
“I’m the last old man still walking and playing the blues,” Guy told Rolling Stone last year, after he made a head-tuning cameo in Sinners. “That’s what we talked about with Muddy [Waters] and Howlin’ Wolf before they died. They said, ‘Buddy, please keep the blues alive.’ And I’m tryin’.”
