You damn right it's Buddy Guy! One of
the last of the “first gen” guitar heroes, and one of the few
living links to the early Chicago blues days, Buddy – nee George -
Guy was born in Lettsworth Louisiana on July 30 1936 to his
sharecropper parents, Sam and Isabel. As a child he would pick
cotton, earning $2.50 for every 100 pounds picked, but music and
specifically guitar was in his blood from his earliest years, and he
began playing on a two string diddley bow (an instrument built around
glass bottle, scrap wood and strings) that he built himself. He was
eventually given a Harmony acoustic guitar which set him on his way,
picking out tunes and licks by ear from records.
In 1957 he moved to Chicago and earned
a contract with Cobra Records, recording with Ike Turner amongst
others, and after two releases he moved to the legendary Chess
Records, home of blues legends Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf amongst
others. He worked largely in the session player/ sideman capacity
during this period, but also appearing on occasions with British
blues and rock artists like Clapton and Led Zeppelin. In fact, it was
only the blues revival of the late 80s and early 90s that saw his
career really start to take off, with Eric Clapton requesting his
presence on the “24 Nights” all start guitar show at the Royal
Albert Hall. It was off the back of these performances that Guy
signed with Silvertone Records and released his signature album “Damn
Right I Got The Blues” in 1991. At the age of 55, he would become a
true star of the blues – the moral here is never give up!
It's worth noting that just like Albert
Collins, Buddy is a true showman, and has always been – playing a
Stratocaster with an extra long cable behind his head and with his
teeth, and being associated in his later years with his unmistakeable
“polka dot” Strat which Fender turned into a signature model in
1995.
As of 2019, he still plays
approximately 130 dates a year – although sadly COVID 19 will have
curtailed that this year – and maintains Buddy Guy's Legends blues
club in Chicago (which I had the pleasure of visiting in 2010) which
hosts many up and coming blues artists.
So, enough of the man – onto the
playing! Buddy's playing is probably best described as controlled
chaos, a simmering wellspring of energy barely kept in check by a
player bursting with ideas. As with all the players we've been
looking at over this year, the minor pentatonic forms the basis of
his style – but as with all of the players we've been looking at,
it's not the what but the how. For one thing, his command of
dynamics is masterful, being able to go from a whisper to a shout in
the space of a single bar, and skilfully juxtaposing the tone of his
licks against his vocals. In this respect, he rivals even B.B. King.
His mastery of string bend is
unsurpassed, with an ability to bend perfectly in tune or slightly
flat or sharp as the song requires. His track “Black Night” has a
trick I've never heard anywhere else, where he bends up and brings
the note down while applying an almost violent vibrato, creating an
unearthly, ghost like sound.
Like many players, Buddy is fond of the
“BB King” pentatonic box – this utilises the highest four notes
from shape 2 of the minor pentatonic, in A minor giving us the G, A ,
C and D notes on the 8th and 10th frets of the
B and E strings. This allows him to reach the E (5th) by
means of a bend – also to tease the b5 from the blues scale by
means of a semitone bend – and resolve to the A root with the third
finger for a powerful and stinging vibrato.
He is equally at home with the major
pentatonic, however, as his cover of “Sweet Little Angel” proves,
including this beautiful BB King- esque intro lick:
Double stop licks like this one also
form an important part of his style, as he tends to play with
clean-ish sound and with a single coil Stratocaster (usually in his
signature polka dot finish) – double stops help fill a lot of sonic
space, I like to think of them as Nature's distortion pedal. Here's
an example of his use of this technique:
Finally, a typical Guy-style fast and
complex run. He manages to have the knack of cramming just the right
number of notes into a particular musical space, even when you think
he's going to trip up and oversaturate the beat he still manages to
pull it back!
Until next month, enjoy and go check
out this living link to the origins of Chicago blues – Buddy Guy
was thre at the beginning, he's there now, and he's finally getting
the recognition he always deserved. Next month, we're visiting
Austin, Texas for a look at the lesser known Vaughan brother –
Jimmie Vaughan.
