Review: Buddy Guy, 'Skin Deep'

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO

At age 72, 50 years after he moved from Louisiana to Chicago, became a fixture on the city’s blues scene and started recording at Chess Records, Buddy Guy has finally made a disc that’s comprised primarily of all his own compositions.

It’s called “Skin Deep” and it’s another solid outing from Guy, who has become one of the kings of the blues since he jumped to Silvertone Records in 1991, moving out of clubs like the Zoo Bar into larger halls and onto festival stages.

A guitar master, whose flashy, distorted, loud (at least live) sound was a key influence on Jimi Hendrix and the legion of white Brit blues-rooted rockers of the ‘60s, Guy’s profile has never been higher than it is today and, for about an hour “Skin Deep” demonstrates that he’s still got it.

[+]Enlarge

Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

While no Guy recording can ever capture his fiery, flashy, never-the-same-two-nights-in-a-row live performances, “Skin Deep” is a solid showcase for his guitar, ripping away on a traditional slow blues on “Lyin’ Like A Dog,” getting all cool on the strutting “Hammer And A Nail” and good and greasy on “Smell The Funk”

There are a handful of guests on the disc -- Eric Clapton joins his hero on the seven-minute crawl “Everytime I Sing The Blues,” the husband and wife team of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi light up the soul-rooted “Too Many Tears” and Robert Randolph turns up on the trip back into the deep country “Out in the Woods” and the uptempo romp “That’s My Home.”

None of them come close to overwhelming Guy and mostly stay out of the way when it comes time for six-string pyrotechnics.

But the key to “Skin Deep” isn’t the guitar work. It’s Guy’s vocals. He’s an underappreciated singer, as raw and real as they come and he gives heart, power and feeling to the entire set, particularly connecting on the acoustic-rooted, organ-drenched title cut, a deeply soulful, autobiographical song about race relations.

Guy’s the last man standing of the original electric Chicago blues set, a status he acknowledges on “Who’s Gonna Fill Those Shoes,” a song that goes back to Robert Johnson, rolls in Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Magic Sam, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Guy’s too modest to put himself on that list, but he belongs there. And the answer to the question, which can be heard across “Skin Deep” is no one. - L. Kent Wolgamott, GZO