Seeing Buddy Guy in Concert Was on My Bucket List

With clips from the "Damn Right" tour

Buddy Guy, publicity photo, RCA Records

My discovery of the blues happened backward. Like any clueless kid growing up in suburbia in the pre-internet, pre-any-kind-of-gadget era, my musical world was defined by what my parents listened to (mostly classical, some jazz) and what my fellow clueless kids listened to on the radio (top 40 pop, for the most part, plus the Beatles, who were just sort of everywhere). Then, my aunt introduced me to Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, the Blues Project, and Cream, and some older kids exposed me to Hendrix. My world exploded.

It would still be a few years before I began excavating the influences that led to those bands. When I did, I found the British Blues movement, whose avatars included John Mayall, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Of course, they had their own influences, and eventually, my digging brought me all the way back to the Kings (BB, Albert, and Freddie, all unrelated), Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Buddy Guy.

All of today’s Western popular music genres, from rock to soul, from funk to surf music, from trance to hip-hop — owe a significant debt to the Blues. Foundational rock musicians, including Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page, and many others, considered themselves first and foremost bluesmen. One other thing they all had in common was that they played the electric guitar.

The guitar completely changed the nature of popular music. People first discovered its possibilities while playing the Blues. Even genres that are no longer guitar-centric, like pop balladry and hip-hop, were irrevocably shaped by the energy and the tonal structures made possible by the electric guitar. And no one played a more pivotal role in unlocking that potential than Buddy Guy.

Early electric guitar was mostly about strumming chords or playing simple riffs to accompany vocalists. The key insight that changed everything was that the guitar could be another voice, not just an accompaniment. Guy, Tharpe, and a handful of others experimented with riffs, harmonies, technical effects, and solos and pretty much invented the vocabulary of rock music. It just took a while for the rest of the world to catch on.

All of this explains why, for me, seeing Buddy Guy play live was a bucket-list item. I didn’t think it would happen — after all, the man is 87 and had not toured in many years. He owns a blues club in Chicago and plays there regularly, but touring is rough on anyone, let alone someone of his age. Then he announced his “Damn Right” Farewell tour. I heard about it from an old friend and fellow Blues fan and jumped at the chance.

The concert took place at the Green Music Center in Sonoma County — an aptly named indoor-outdoor venue with lawn seating, perfect for a picnic and music. The idyllic setting and the genteel crowd set up an interesting contrast with the down-and-dirty music that was to come.

Eric Gales, a former gangster with the tattoos and gold teeth to prove it, opened the evening with his band. He is an accomplished guitarist and singer who seems comfortable with Blues, funk, rock, soul, and even rap. His bandmates were crisp while packing a punch.

Their first song started, “If you’ve never slept in the street, you don’t know the blues…” and went from there. By that criterion, it’s unlikely anyone in the audience knew the Blues — but we were there for it. Opening acts are often hit-or-miss, but I’ll be checking out more of Eric Gales.

After the break, Buddy Guy brought his band on, and they did an eclectic, upbeat set that included some old classic blues and rock songs. There has been some chatter in the fan community about his hands slowing down, but at one point, he stepped down off the stage and did a walking tour through the crowd, shredding the bejeezus out of that guitar for around three minutes, which is an eternity when you are improvising like that.

One of the most encouraging things about the evening was the number of young people who showed up to see this legend. I mean kids in their teens, young couples, and many entire families. Rock and blues are on life support in the land of their birth, but new fans are still being born.

“Damn Right I Got the Blues”

This is a clip from January of this year at Buddy’s club, Legends, in Chicago, as he was gearing up for his “Damn Right” tour:

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Here is my cellphone capture of a few minutes of the Sonoma concert. As you would expect, it’s not the greatest quality, but you can sense the atmosphere, almost like a revival.

Guy is funny and mischievous on stage. He flirts with women in the audience, does a spoken-word piece about an unnamed 19-year-old who sounds really high-maintenance, and generally gives off the energy of someone several decades younger.

His voice remains full and powerful, and it hardly shows if he has lost some dexterity on the guitar. The tour is still ongoing, and if you have a chance to see him, jump on it. After this, the only way to see Buddy Guy live will be to go to Chicago.