Buddy Guy brings West side blues to Waukegan
Whoever thought up the "one-off" pairing of legendary guitarists Buddy Guy and Dave Mason scored a coup for Waukegan's Genesee Theatre. The real bonus will come when they plug in, and the music is pushed through a state-of-the art digital house sound system.
"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?" said Sarah Rankin, the theater's marketing manager. "This is one show where the artists are so well-known, their credentials precede them, wherever they go."
Buddy Guy is one of the progenitors of the "West side" school of Chicago electric blues with his iconic 1950's Cobra label recordings and controlled use of amplifier feedback as a note-sustaining tool, which attracted fans and students like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The five-time Grammy Award winner and worldwide recognized blues ambassador is touring in support of a recent CD, "Skin Deep," for the Zomba Music Group.
"The CD title is from something my mother told me, when I was 8 years old ... 'beauty is only skin deep,' and it's been carried with me ever since," Guy said.
Guy has taken the distinct "West-side" sound - marked by stinging guitar lines, subtle horn arrangements and an incessant backbeat - around the world. Despite more than 50 years in the music business, it's only the second time he's played in Waukegan.
"We mostly played South suburbs, Joliet, and Chicago clubs like The Bucket of Blood, and wasn't much call in Waukegan, early on," Guy said, during an early morning phone interview. "That 'West-side' thing, I've been asked so many times, and don't know what to say, we just never noticed a difference ... back then, they took Otis (Rush), Magic Sam (Sam Maghett), Matt Murphy and me into the studio for Cobra Records, and just recorded what we were playing in the South- and West-side clubs at the time.
"When I'd sit in with Muddy (Waters), (Howlin') Wolf, and Willie (Dixon), that was school, and I learned what they did," he said. "Eric Clapton told me that I had something he never will... being able to play with Little Walter (Jacobs) alongside him on harmonica."
Guy had a regional following through the early 1960s, and later gained wider exposure by turning up the volume on his guitar amplifier. The moderated feedback and held notes led to none other than Hendrix becoming a fan, who followed Guy around the New York City club scene.
"Feedback? You really want to know how that happened?" Guy began to laugh, "I was playing a club one night, and there was this lady with a slit-skirt. I put my guitar down on the rack, and went to talk with her. This humming started in the key of G, and it was from the strings, the guitar against the amp, and it sounded good. So, always have to thank that lady with the slit-skirt for that.
"When I went to England, they liked Jimi, that was (feedback) special effects... they didn't like when I used it, it wasn't pure blues for them," he said. "Now, see, when those British guys came over here to America, they were all saying 'we love that' and wanted to know how it was done."
Guy also remembers his appearance and the circumstances surrounding one of the great lost television programs, "Camera 3," a 30-minute CBS-TV flagship broadcast, from 1962. Son House, a contemporary of the mysterious Robert Johnson had been rediscovered living in anonymity and played two solo numbers, followed by Guy and his band.
"That will always be cherished... it was school, and beautiful. We played the last song together on acoustic guitar, and mine was second guitar for his numbers. I found out that Muddy learned to play from Son, it all goes like that."
Buddy Guy and The Dave Mason Band
When: 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N.Genesee Street, Waukegan
Tickets: $39.50-$75. Call (847)263-6300 or go to geneseetheatre.com.