Musician Bringin’ Love at 81

Buddy Guy gave an over-the-top, full-on performance at the Granada Theater on March 16 to a sold-out crowd, as part of the UCSB Arts and Lectures program. At 81, with the energy of an 18-year-old, he shared his passion and music genius with a non-stop, 2-hour gig. 

Here in our midst was a wise respected elder, weaving his loving compassion for all humanity with words of wisdom and a solid songbook he graciously invited us to sing along with him. From the millisecond he walked on the stage with his Buddy Guy Signature yellow-polka-dot-on-black-lacquer Fender Strat, a black snakeskin guitar strap, matching polka-dot cap, checkered shirt, and black sneakers, we all knew it was going to be one magical ride.

His vocal range, pitch and tone covered the waterfront, from soft upper-register notes sliding down the vocal plane to the gut, loud and clear. His unimaginable, widely respected guitar mastery kept the multi-cultural and multi-generational audience in awe. Wide-open was he to their spontaneous though initially uninvited participation to sing along with his first song, he knows that’s just what his music does to people: they get happy and want to express it with him.

At times he pushed, cajoled and instructed the audience to sing on cue with him and loud enough to feel it, so much so that by 80 minutes into the gig, while continuing to sing and play his guitar, he walked off stage down the left aisle, out the doors to the lobby, where he helped one lucky young boy strum his guitar, and circled back inside down the right aisle, stopping every 10 rows so folks could be with him up close singing.

Guy opened with “Damn Right I Got the Blues”, “Hoochie Koochi Man”, a bit of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, and “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream, playing with just his left hand on the fret board. He also used a black rectangle towel as a guitar pick with a cyclical slapping motion to strum the guitar, followed by picking with his teeth, then playing with the guitar behind his back. Next song was “Grits Ain’t Groceries” by Little Milton 1969, where he laid his fender on the speaker stack for the classic feedback experience, hit the strings with yet another scarf, and plucked the notes to “Who’s Making Love” by Johnnie Taylor 1968 with a drumstick. Next up was “Ain’t That Peculiar” by Marvin Gaye, “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker, “Sweet Sixteen” by B.B.King, “Slippin’ Out, Slippin In’ ” by Buddy Guy, and ” Have You Ever Been Mistreated”, a cover of “Five Long Years” by Eddie Boyd 1952. 

He switched out his fender for a late-1960s Coral Electric Sitar to play his song “Skin Deep”, based on his mother’s words to him as a teenager. The song was adopted by the Playing for Change Foundation to support music education worldwide. His finale was “Meet Me In Chicago”.

Guy was backed by his Damn Right Blues Band comprising pros he generously let do solos. They are: 2nd lead guitarist Ric “JazGuitar” Hall on a Fender Limited-Edition ’60s Stratocaster Electric Guitar in Canary Diamond with a five-way pickup switch; Chicago’s 190-proof keyboardist Marty “Slammin Sammon” Sammons on a Hammond XK-1c portable organ stacked on a Yamaha CP electric stage piano, with pitch and tone from classical piano to a Hammond pumping through a Leslie; Orlando Wright on a five-string, white-lacquer solid body Keisel electric bass; and Tim Austin on a Ludwig Evolution Legacy drum kit in blue with black oyster pearl and Remo heads.

In addition to the music, Buddy told stories of his life experiences on the farm growing up in Lettsworth, Louisiana, how he made his first guitar and taught himself to play, going to Chicago at 19 and meeting Muddy Waters, plus tales of those who would learn from him such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. 

Mostly, Guy talked of love and the healing music brings. Indeed, as Hendrix once said, “Heaven is lying at Buddy Guy’s feet while listening to him play guitar.” 

411: Buddy Guy has received six Grammy Awards, 28 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), the Billboard magazine Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, the Presidential National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to American culture. In 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, When I Left Home.