As a younger man, George \u201cBuddy\u201d Guy went through some of the worst things a musician could go through.\u00a0 His talents were misused in several ways by record label executives, and as a result, Guy didn\u2019t achieve the same level of recognition many other Chicago blues contemporaries did.\u00a0 But as is often the case, good things happen with a little patience \u2013 or in this scenario, a lot of it.<\/p>\n
Before Buddy Guy enjoyed all that belated success, he was a journeyman musician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was born on July 30, 1936.\u00a0 Guy would move to Chicago in 1957, immediately reaping the benefits of a thriving blues scene then dominated by Muddy Waters and Howlin\u2019 Wolf.\u00a0 He would defeat fellow West Side axe-slingers Magic Sam and Otis Rush to win a record contract under Cobra Records.\u00a0\u00a0 This would last just one year, as Cobra went belly-up in 1959.<\/p>\n
Shortly thereafter, Guy signed with Chess Records, Chicago\u2019s leading blues and R&B label.\u00a0 He stayed with Chess from 1959 to 1968, and would record songs mostly uncharacteristic of his blues leanings.\u00a0 Label owner Leonard Chess was apparently unhappy with Guy\u2019s desire to take his loud, passionate live playing style to the studio setting.\u00a0 Only one album was released in this nine-year stint (1967\u2019s Left My Blues in San Francisco<\/em>), and Guy\u2019s R&B and jazz-influenced singles were left gathering dust in the studio cabinets.\u00a0 During this period, Guy was mostly utilized as a session guitarist, backing up Waters, Wolf and other Chess recording artists.\u00a0 By the late \u201860s, the Chicago blues sound had transcended race barriers and influenced thousands of young rock and blues musicians.\u00a0 Few people outside of Chicago had heard of Buddy Guy.\u00a0 Fortunately, some of these people were among the young rock and blues musicians influenced by Guy\u2019s signature style, including a certain English blues-rocker nicknamed \u201cSlowhand.\u201d<\/p>\n It would be almost twenty years after Guy\u2019s last major performance (the 1969 Supershow<\/em> concert at Staines, England) before Guy finally got the recognition he deserved.\u00a0 Lifelong fan Eric Clapton invited Guy to the 24 Nights<\/em> blues concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.\u00a0 As a result of this successful gig, Guy was signed to Silvertone Records, where he recorded Damn Right, I\u2019ve Got the Blues<\/em> in 1991.\u00a0 This album would earn Guy his first Grammy award at the age of 55.\u00a0 After the 1993 misstep Feels Like Rain <\/em>(featuring critically-panned duets with country star Travis Tritt and ex-Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers), Guy rebounded with 1994\u2019s Slippin\u2019 In<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0This time, he was wise to eschew the ill-advised duets present on the previous release.\u00a0 Since then, Guy has been recording regularly, inviting the right people to collaborate on his records and racking up the awards.\u00a0 His latest release, 2010\u2019s Living Proof<\/em>, won that year\u2019s Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.<\/p>\n Even at the age of 75, Buddy Guy remains active as a recording and touring guitarist.\u00a0 He has lost none of that legendary showmanship that, ironically, made Chess Records wary of using him as more than just a backing musician.\u00a0 He\u2019s even become an enterprising businessman on the side \u2013 his club, Buddy Guy Legends, is currently one of the hottest nightspots in Chicago.\u00a0 More importantly, Guy\u2019s story is an inspiring reminder that musical genius can only be overlooked for so long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a younger man, George \u201cBuddy\u201d Guy went through some of the worst things a musician could go through.\u00a0 His talents were misused in several ways by record label executives, and as a result, Guy didn\u2019t achieve the same level of recognition many other Chicago blues contemporaries did.\u00a0 But as is often the case, good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thebluesguitarplayer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}