- Album list
- Singer Intro
George 'Buddy' Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues and has influenced eminent guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck and John Mayer. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a house guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with the harmonica player Junior Wells.
Guy was ranked 30th in Rolling Stone magazine's '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time'. His song 'Stone Crazy' was ranked 78th in the Rolling Stone list of the '100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time'. Clapton once described him as 'the best guitar player alive'.
In 1999 Guy wrote the book Damn Right I've Got the Blues, with Donald Wilcock. Guy's autobiography, When I Left Home: My Story, was published in 2012..
Career
In the early 1950s Guy began performing with bands in Baton Rouge. While living there, he worked as a custodian at Louisiana State University.
Soon after moving to Chicago on September 25, 1957, Guy fell under the influence of Muddy Waters. In 1958, a competition with West Side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush gave Guy a record contract. Soon afterwards he recorded for Cobra Records. He recorded sessions with Junior Wells for Delmark Records under the pseudonym Friendly Chap in 1965 and 1966.
Guy’s early career was impeded by conservative business choices made by his record company, Chess Records, his label from 1959 to 1968, which refused to record Guy playing in the novel style of his live shows. Leonard Chess, Chess Records founder, denounced Guy’s playing as 'noise'. In the early 1960s, Chess tried recording Guy as a solo artist with R&B ballads, jazz instrumentals, soul and novelty dance tunes, but none of these recordings were released as a single. Guy’s only Chess album, I Left My Blues in San Francisco, was released in 1967. Most of the songs belong stylistically to the era's soul boom, with orchestrations by Gene Barge and Charlie Stepney. Chess used Guy mainly as a session guitarist to back Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor and others.
In 1965, Guy participated in the European tour American Folk Blues Festival.
He appeared onstage at the March 1969 'Supershow' in Staines, England, which also included Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Jack Bruce, Stephen Stills, Buddy Miles, Glenn Campbell, Roland Kirk, Jon Hiseman, and the Misunderstood. In 1972, he established The Checkerboard Lounge, with partner L.C. Thurman.
Guy's career took off during the blues revival of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was sparked by Clapton's request that Guy be part of the '24 Nights' all-star blues guitar lineup at London's Royal Albert Hall. Guy subsequently signed with Silvertone Records.
Guy performs a month of shows each January at his Chicago blues club, Buddy Guy's Legends.
In 2015, Alan Harper, a British blues fan, published the book Waiting for Buddy Guy: Chicago Blues at the Crossroads.
Discography
I Left My Blues in San Francisco (1967)
A Man and the Blues (1968)
Hold That Plane! (1972)
The Blues Giant (1979)
Breaking Out (1980)
DJ Play My Blues (1982)
Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (1991)
Feels Like Rain (1993)
Slippin' In (1994)
Heavy Love (1998)
Sweet Tea (2001)
Blues Singer (2003)
Bring 'Em In (2005)
Skin Deep (2008)
Living Proof (2010)
Rhythm & Blues (2013)
Born to Play Guitar (2015)
with Junior Wells
Hoodoo Man Blues (1965)
Chicago / The Blues / Today!, Vol. 1 (1966)
It’s My Life, Baby! (1966)
Coming at You (1968)
Buddy and the Juniors (1970, also with Junior Mance)
Southside Blues Jam (1970)
Play the Blues (1972)
Pleading the Blues (1979)
Going Back (1981)
Better Off with the Blues (1993)
with Phil Guy
Buddy & Phil (1981)
The Red Hot Blues of Phil Guy (1982)
Bad Luck Boy (1983)
All Star Chicago Blues Session (1994)
He's My Blues Brother (2006)
with Memphis Slim
Southside Reunion (1971)
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