PUBLISHED IN THE KITCHENER WATERLOO RECORD FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1998
By Nick Krewen
BUDDY GUY knows how to cook up a storm on and off the stage.
When he isn't basting audiences around the world with masterful blues guitar licks or the savory Memphis-scented funk and soul of his latest album Heavy Love, GEORGE "BUDDY" GUY can usually be found at his suburban Chicago home simmering a pot of tasty Southern cuisine.
"When I'm not home, the stove don't ever come on," jokes the 61-year-young Guy, who was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana but has lived in Chicago since the late '50s.
"Home cookin' is nothing like restaurant cooking. When you're in a restaurant, they give you a menu and you take what they've got.
"When they get up in the morning at home, you get a taste of red beans and rice, which in Louisiana is what you got."
January is the month that Guy's family usually eats the best, on account of the veteran bluesman's annual residency at the namesake club he owns, Buddy Guy's Legends.
"I have everybody jokin' about it," says Guy, who is sitting bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in a Missouri hotel room at 8:30 a.m. despite playing until 1:00 a.m. that morning.
"The reason I play in January is because everybody has to come and see me. It's too cold to stay outside!"
However, even Guy admits last January's Legends stint seemed a bit more frosty. His longtime partner, harmonica great JUNIOR WELLS, lost a four month battle with lymphoma on January 15. He was 63.
"On the 15 th he tore me apart," Guy recalls. "Even the first date, he was so sick. I'd start singing and tears would fall out of my eyes.
"I spent so much time with that guy that we were almost like brothers. It was a great loss to me, and I still haven't straightened up on it."
Guy and his label Silvertone paid tribute a few weeks ago to the partner he first teamed up with in 1970 by releasing the album Buddy Guy & Junior Wells: Last Time Around -- Live At Legends.
But Guy notes that Wells wasn't the only casualty in what increasingly becomes an aging, fragile blues community.
"It just wasn't a good year, man," says Guy, his normally cheerful voice turning serious.
"We lost not only Junior, but I was pretty close to LUTHER (ALLISON), FENTON ROBINSON, JIMMY ROGERS -- and we lost about five or six guys in a year's time. I used to say there was a handful of us , but now the hand is no longer full. The only ones I can think of at the moment are JOHN LEE (HOOKER), B.B. (KING) and myself as guitar players."
Buddy Guy has certainly earned his reputation. Born into a family of sharecroppers, Guy eventually worked his way out of the Mississippi Delta and risked starvation in Chicago so he could get noticed by prominent blues label Chess.
Eventually McKINLEY MORGANFIELD, a.k.a. MUDDY WATERS, took Guy under his wing and hired him as a session guitarist for Chess.
"I made records behind Muddy (Waters) and (HOWLIN') WOLF, SONNY BOY (WILLIAMSON) and LITTLE WALTER," Guy recalls. "I was the type of guy, if I played behind you, I didn't want to step on you. I wanted to support you, you know? All of them liked that, and that's why I got a chance to play on all of them records."
A 1967 appearance at Toronto's Mariposa Folk Festival in front of 30,000 people convinced him not to abandon the blues, and Buddy Guy began playing Canada on a regular basis.
"After that, I'd play Canada for two weeks at a time around Yonge Street in Toronto," Guy says. "Then they started bringing me around to other smaller blues clubs in Kitchener and other places. Canada has been very supportive of me, and I will never forget that."
An electrifying guitarist, Guy says he's just continuing tradition.
"I've been watching B.B. King and those greats who all taught us everything we know," he states. "I learned a lot from him and Muddy Waters and all those great guys.
When he returns to Lulu's tomorrow (Thursday), he's also hoping to hang out with another great guy -- MEL BROWN.
"I hope to have Mel jam with us this time as well," says Buddy. "Great guy -- he can play! Guitar and keyboard!"
-30-
DISCOGRAPHY
1965 -- Hoodoo Man Blues (with Junior Wells) -- Vanguard
1967 -- A Man & The Blues -- Vanguard
1967 -- Left My Blues In San Francisco -- Chess
1968 -- This Is Buddy Guy -- Vanguard
1970 -- I Was Walking Through The Woods -- Chess
1972 -- Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play The Blues (with Junior Wells)
1972 -- Hold That Plane -- Vanguard
1974 -- Drinkin' TNT and Smokin' Dynamite (with Junior Wells) -- Blind Pig
1981 -- Alone And Acoustic (with Junior Wells)
1981 -- Stone Crazy -- Alligator
1991 -- Damn Right I've Got The Blues! -- Silvertone/Jive
1992 -- The Complete Chess Studio Sessions -- MCA Universal
1992 -- The Very Best Of Buddy Guy -- Rhino
1993 -- Feels Like Rain -- Silvertone/Jive
1994 -- Slippin' In
1996 -- Live/The Real Deal
1998 -- Heavy Love
1998 -- Last Time Around (with Junior Wells)
1999 -- Buddy's Baddest: The Best Of Buddy Guy
UNDATED RELEASES
As Good As It Gets
Bluesmaster
Breaking Out
Buddy's Blues
Buddy And The Juniors
Buddy Guy And Friends
Buddy Guy And Junior Wells
D.J. Play My Blues
In The Beginning
Live At The Checkerboard Lounge
Live in Montreaux
My Time After Awhile
Southern Blues 1957-1963
Stone Crazy
The Very Best Of Buddy Guy
COLLABORATOR
1988 -- Various Artists, Best Of Chess Blues Volume II
1991 -- Eric Clapton, 24 Nights
1993 -- Various Artists, Stone Free -- A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix
1994 -- Various Artists, Rush
1994 -- Various Artists, Jason's Lyric
1995 -- Various Artists, Chess Blues
1995 -- Various Artists, Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead (with The Neville Bros.)
1996 -- Various Artists, A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan
CONTRIBUTOR
1988 -- Willie Dixon, The Chess Box (with Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter)
1989 -- Muddy Waters, The Chess Box
1991 -- Howlin' Wolf, The Chess Box
AWARDS
1991 -- Grammy, Best Contemporary Blues Album -- Damn Right I've Got The Blues
1993 -- Grammy, Best Contemporary Blues Album -- Feels Like Rain
1995 -- Grammy, Best Contemporary Blues Album -- Slippin' In
1996 -- Grammy, Best Rock Instrumental Performance -- "SRV Shuffle" (with Jimmy Vaughan,Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Dr. John & Art Neville)
FAST FACTS
Born July 30, 1936 in Lettsworth, Louisiana to Isabel Tolliver and Samuel Guy
In 1960, Buddy signed with Chess Records and became the session guitarist. He signed with Vanguard in 1967, hooking up with harmonica great Junior Wells.
Among the blues classics Buddy has contributed include Sonny Boy Williamson's "One Way Out," Koko Taylor's "Wang Dang Doodle" and Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor"
In June 1989 he opened his own club Legends in Chicago
THANKS: Cameron Carpenter, Philip Bast
©1998, 1999 Nick Krewen, Octopus Media Ink
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