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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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BUDDY GUY
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, June 24th
2008 |
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| There’s
a lot of excitement in the environs of Shepherd’s
Bush tonight. The Thai restaurant is full of over-weight
ageing rockers exchanging Buddy
Guy stories, yarning over plates of
Pad Thai about gigs long since attended. I could
have joined in – I saw Guy about 15 years
ago just after he had released Damn Right I’ve
Got the Blues – but didn’t feel quite
that old. Outside the theatre, the same huge queue
and it’s only 7.15. And the queue tells its
own story of passing years: like the artist, now
a sprightly 73-year-old and once famous for his
permed hair, almost everyone is folically challenged.
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| Guy’s
in the UK for five very busy nights, including the
Jazz Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, after which
he’s heading to the Continent, and then back
home to the USA. A hectic schedule for the last
surviving master of the Chicago blues – there’s
barely a blues body he didn’t play with during
his career as a session man with Chess Records.
Once unleashed as a solo performer, he became, along
with Albert King, one of the seminal influences
in terms of style and technique on a generation
of musicians who would redefine the face of blues
and rock, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jeff Beck,
Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix. |
| I
remember feeling slightly dissatisfied when I first
saw him that he seemed to prefer showboating to
full-on playing, spending much of the night mimicking
his great forbears, and some of his disciples. Well,
that’s the Buddy Guy show, and I swear, apart
from a different band and a few new songs, it hasn’t
changed much in well over a decade. Okay, Mr Guy
needs a few more breaks during which in step his
accomplished band: Ric ‘Jaz Guitar’
Hall on guitar; Orlando Wright on electric bass;
Tim Austin on drums and, on electric keyboards,
Marty Sammon, with whom he exchanges some very nice
licks. I should add that he is dressed in the height
of fashion with carefully-chosen odd shoes. Guy’s
guitar style, like the man himself, is flamboyant
and sometimes hysterical. Lightning fast riffs leading
into long-held single notes with incredible sustain,
piercing volume followed by hushed whispering breaks
of immense subtlety. And what made it different
in the sixties was that it was played without the
restraint that you can sometimes hear on, for example,
Muddy Waters’ recordings. He’s got all
the stuff for sure, even though he struggles a little
with his wild falsetto singing (he’s sipping
some sort of throat concoction all night). |
| But
it feels as though it’s being thrown away
as he rambles through songs, ‘Feels like rain’,
‘Damn right’, ‘Mojo hand’,
Hoochie Coochie man’, none ever quite finished
to anyone’s satisfaction. |
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Buddy
Guy (L) with Ric 'Jazz Guitar' Hall (R) |
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And
then there’s the real showboating: playing
his guitar with only his left hand on the fret board;
strumming with a drum stick; strumming with his
shirt; playing the guitar behind his head. In fact,
a lot of that old-time stuff that the earliest blues
players used to have to do to earn a living at a
Saturday night plantation dance. And of course,
he not plays not only to the audience, but in the
audience, leaving the stage to emerge in the middle
of the mosh, where he spent almost ten minutes shooting
off riffs before (and this was a first) appearing
in the balcony and playing for us there. Oh, the
joys of cordless guitars! He also does his impersonations:
John Lee Hooker; Eric Clapton and, inevitably, Hendrix. |
It’s a good show and the audience are in raptures,
but a shame that the formulaic structure prevents
us from hearing the best of Mr Guy’s considerable
and apparently undiminished talents. Certainly good
enough to move me to go out and buy a few of his
albums, and I understand there’s a new one,
Skin Deep, on the way. So go out and buy some too
– and if you hurry you can also catch Mr Guy’s
Glastonbury performance on the wonderful BBC
iPlayer - if your lucky enough to live in the
UK. - Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate)
Kate's photo album  |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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