A Man And The Blues

Performer: Buddy Guy
Producer: Sam Charters
Distributor: Welk

Notes: Personnel: Buddy Guy (vocals, guitar); Wayne Bennett (guitar); Donald Hankins, Aaron Corthen, Bobby Fields (saxophone); Otis Spann (piano); Jack Myers (bass); Lonny Taylor, Fred Below (drums). The guitarist's first album away from Chess -- and to be truthful, it sounds as though it could have been cut at 2120 S. Michigan, with Guy's deliciously understated guitar work and a tight combo anchored by three saxes and pianist Otis Spann laying down tough grooves on the vicious "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "I Can't Quit the Blues," and an exultant cover of Mercy Dee's "One Room Country Shack." ~ Bill Dahl A MAN AND THE BLUES, Buddy Guy's first solo album on Vanguard, ranks with B.B. King's LIVE AT THE REGAL as one of the touchstones of '60s blues. This is essential listening. Guy's guitar playing is a miracle of gracefulness and passion. His spare, liquid approach can be heard here at its uncluttered finest. Likewise, his vocals manage to marry some of Junior Wells' streetwise badass-ness (must've rubbed off after so many gigs together in the years leading up to this album) with Guy's own inimitable striving falsetto, clearly inspired by B.B. but definitely a thing of its own. One could conceivably grouse that there's not a lot of difference between "Jam On A Monday Morning" and "Just Playing My Axe," but come now� are these excellent titles or what? Guy comes through with four slow blues. "Sweet Little Angel" and "Worry Worry" obviously owe a lot to LIVE AT THE REGAL, but "One Room Country Shack" and the title cut show the territory Guy is heading for on his own. All this and Otis Spann on piano, too. Oh--and no, Virginia, Stevie Ray did not invent the first blues version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb."

Eric Clapton once called Buddy Guy "the greatest blues guitarist ever." Guy, along with contemporary Magic Sam, took the sounds of Chicago blues of the 1950s and ratcheted them up a notch, in the process creating a new form of controlled blues mayhem. Born in Louisiana, he moved to Chicago as a young man in 1957 and served an apprenticeship with Chicago blues king Muddy Waters while getting his own solo career underway. Guy's frequent collaborations with harmonica player Junior Wells are among his best work.

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