Blues You Can Use: Buddy Guy, ‘The Complete Chess Recordings’

Monday was The Great Buddy Guy’s Birthday.  He is 76 years old and still out there rockin’ his behind off.  I have been fortunate enough to see Buddy a couple of times and he amazes me every time.

For those of you who think The Blues is nothing but sad stuff, go see Buddy, it’s anything but.  The last time I saw him, he said, “You know we blues singers have to work harder than these rap guys do today.  We have to come up with creative ways of saying what they just blatantly say.”  So he took some of those old classics of his and “rapped them up,” so to speak, and they were hilarious.  Not for the kids, but very funny.

My Buddy Guy recommendation is the Complete Chess Recordings.  Forty-seven songs,  pure great Buddy Guy!  The CD includes “Moanin,” “The First Time I Met The Blues,” and “Worried Mind."  It's early Buddy Guy at it’s finest.

When you are ready, move on up to his latest album “Living Proof,” then get his biography and learn the real history of the blues.