Photo: Martine Ehrenclou
By Martine Ehrenclou
The Saban Theater in Los Angeles was packed with Buddy Guy fans. And I was one of them. Not an empty seat in the house. Everyone was there to see the Blues legend, Buddy Guy, and the Damn Right Blues Band.
I’m going straight to the video I shot of the song, “Five Long Years” written by Eddie Boyd. This video says a whole lot more than I can. You’ll see six minutes of an extraordinary show with not only one of the greatest guitar players and true entertainers, but also a badass band.
You must watch the video until you see Ric ‘Jaz’ Hall play a blowout guitar solo. It’s just so good. If nothing else watch that.
This is how the evening began. The crowd went wild. We were on our feet. People yelled Buddy Guy’s name after the close of the song, yelled for one of the best performers I’ve ever seen. Yes, I wrote that. And I didn’t expect to.
Throughout the two-hour set, Buddy Guy mixed engaging storytelling with his soulful singing and guitar playing, commanding the stage like few I’ve seen. Leaning into the crowd, he played to the people, cracked funny jokes and recounted stories of growing up in rural Louisiana with no running water.
Guy then launched into a raucous blues number, “Who’s Making Love To Your Old Lady” and beckoned the audience to sing on the chorus of the song. And they did. The entire audience sang that chorus. To see Guy’s face light up when we did, was foreshadowing for the rest of the evening.
Honestly, I didn’t expect Guy to be so funny, so animated, so personal. This wasn’t just a performance. This was an interaction and the crowd loved it. And him.
Among other Blues standards, Guy did a grooving rendition of “Fever.” His animated performance and interaction with the audience was priceless. At one point (I think this was the song) where he turned his guitar around with the strings facing his shirt and played percussion.
On the B.B. King tune, “Sweet Sixteen,” Guy played a guitar solo with such beautiful tone. Here, he went all out with his voice and he was just feeling it, throwing his whole body into it.
Check out the video for the Albert King cover, “Drowning on Dry Land.” Guy used his gifts with storytelling to sing that song. I’ll let the video speak for itself. Guy’s guitar tone knocked me out on this one.
In the space after this tune, Guy took a moment to talk to the audience. The band was quiet. He talked about not understanding why there was so much hate in our country now. He said, “How can you hate somebody if you don’t know them?” And someone from the audience, yelled out, “We love you Buddy!”
He tilted his head toward the direction of the voice and said, “I love hearing that. Love is where it’s at.”
The venue thundered with applause.
After a few more songs, and a striking piano solo by Marty Simmons, Buddy Guy played, “Born to Play Guitar” from his latest album, Born to Play Guitar that won a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Blues Album, one of seven Grammy Awards.
Towards the end of the show, 20-year-old Quinn Sullivan joined Buddy Guy on the stage with his Strat. I’ll let the video speak for itself.
Buddy Guy has won seven Grammy Awards, 23 W.C. Handy Awards, was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, was awarded Kennedy Center Honors, and has influenced guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
I welcome your comments.
It was a great show!
Do you know who the two women guitarists were who joined Buddy & Quinn Sullivan on stage near the end of the show?
David,
It sure was. I only saw one female guitarist and it was Jeff Beck’s guitarist, Carmen Vandenberg.
Buddy Guy is a treasure. Thanks for making us a part of the evening through your words and videos.
Dave,
Thanks so much!
There were two female guitarists who shared the stage at the end. I saw your response that one of them was probably Carmen Vandenberg. 4 of us all thought he said, “Orianthe” but given the acoustics, we could have easily have misheard. He referenced Jeff Beck when introducing her, saying something like,”‘she’s been working with my best friend, Jeff Beck.” and while both have connection with him, Carmen has the more immediate, so I’ll go with your Carmen over Orianthe. Any clue who the other was? Thanks for the review. Great show! I later realized it was just about exactly 50 years ago we met in Ann Arbor and I threw a party for him. Been a fan for longer, going back to when he was “Friendly Chap” with Jr. Wells on “Messing with the Kid” on Chicago The Blues Today.
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Bill,
I only saw one. But I know for sure the blond was Carmen, Jeff Beck’s female guitarist. I know because I was so impressed by her after seeing the show I went home and looked her up immediately. The female guitarist I saw looked exactly like Carmen. I don’t think Orianthi would only come on stage for 3 mins of the entire show.
There was a guy with longer hair to the left of Quinn Sullivan.
As a Buddy Guy fan through and through I was a little disappointed by this concert. He obviously wasn’t feeling well, as he stated. I don’t think he even came out until what half hour or longer after Quinn Sullivan stopped playing? Don’t get me wrong he is a great entertainer and one of the world’s best, but this was not one of his strongest performances. The other folks came out to fill in. He really did not play that many songs. Should have seen him at Red Rocks in 2016, that show was great and he was obviously feeling better. He will always be in my top ten of the greatest and I would gladly go see him again but I expected more.
Steve,
Thanks for sharing your experience of Buddy Guy’s concert. Since I’ve never seen him before I didn’t pick up on what you did. I don’t remember hearing him say he wasn’t feeling well. Buddy Guy went on at 9pm when he was slated to go on, after Quinn Sullivan played for a while. We arrived just before 9pm. Personally, I thought he was pretty incredible, an amazing performer and entertainer. I guess we can’t expect our favorite musicians to be in top form every single time we see them, but I do understand your disappointment. I know he’s touring so I hope you can catch him again.
I’m a huge blues fan and that includes a lot of Buddy’s music. But I just saw him at a theatre in northwest Indiana and came away disappointed with several aspects of the show. One of them is that Buddy talked waaaaaaay too much. He wasn’t even playing complete songs because he seemed so eager to talk more. Some of his stories were funny, while others just seemed rambling. Someone kept filling a cup for him. It may have been just water, but maybe not. He also waffled between telling us how religious he was and dropping F-bombs every time he spoke. It didn’t help that there was a guy right near the stage who kept interrupting Buddy’s stories. Buddy would then tell him to shut the f*** up. That got old quickly. I came to hear Buddy play guitar. I heard some of that but he seemed to want to play it with anything but his fingers. At one point he was just whacking the guitar with a towel or rag. I welcomed his band, his son and Quinn Sullivan picking up the slack by playing some great lead. Buddy needs to tone down the rhetoric and play the f****** guitar. That’s not asking too much, is it, Buddy?