Legends - Buddy Guy

"Whose Going To Fill These Big Shoes?" That's the song that Buddy Guy opened with last night. It was sung to the "Sweet Home Chicago" music. It basically goes through some of the greatest blues artists that have left us: Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Albert King, and many others. It asks, whose going to be the person to carry the blues forward.

The concert was phenomenal. I've seen Buddy play many times but last night was the first time I've seen him at his club, Legends. If you just listen to him you don't get the full impact. He's a great guitarist and, I think, an underrated singer. But his stage presence has to be witnessed. His performance is full bodied. His gestures. His facial expressions. The way he works the crowd. He owns the crowd and the show.

Opening for Buddy was Lurrie Bell. A very good Chicago Style blues artist in his own right. Playing with him was Mathew Skoller, a harmonica player. It was the first time I knowingly heard him play. Fan-fucking-tastic! I counted, he actually had 10 harps on stage with him and was changing song by song. I guess they are in different keys. He would switch back and forth between two in the middle of songs. He and Lurrie played an excellent version of Junior Wells, "Messing With The Kid."


But back to the opening song, as the story goes that when Muddy knew his time was coming he told Buddy that he was the last one left and not to let the blues die. Of course that ignores the likes of John Lee Hooker who lived until 2001 and B.B. King and Taj Mahal who are still around. With the exception of John Lee, those guys are really considered part of the Chicago Blues scene. There are lesser known guys out there, Lurrie Bell, who opened for Buddy last night, and Eddie Clearwater but the numbers are dwindling and aging.

There are some younger guys out there. Kenny Wayne Sheppard comes to mind. But the young artists aren't the same. They didn't grow up in the poor delta as share croppers. They don't have the direct connection to the roots. (For the record, this blogger, a 30-something white guy has none either.)

When Buddy introduced the title song to his most recent album, Skin Deep, he referred to it as his "latest album", his "last album." An era is coming to an end and it was palpable to me last night.