An electric wave of guitar riffs tears through the audience, charting a path for the 88-year-old blues legend Buddy Guy. He solos all the way to the bar swarmed with fans and photographers. He raises a glass, takes a sip — and goes right back to shredding.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer regularly hosts blues musicians at his Chicago club Buddy Guy’s Legends downtown on South Wabash Avenue. But earlier this month, he took to the stage, as he sometimes does, to remind the audience who helped establish the Chicago blues scene.
Greg Guy, Buddy Guy’s son who is also an acclaimed blues guitarist, said the winter performances originally started three decades ago as a business strategy. This year, Buddy Guy performed through the beginning of February.
“When it was colder outside, we did not get as many customers,” Greg said.
So Buddy Guy told his son, “Let us see how many customers come in when I perform.”
The winter performances now sell out and bring in nearly 500 customers a day.
At the early February performance, the audience answered in cheers when asked if any of them had come from out of state or even outside of the country to see Buddy Guy play. The audience included die-hard Guy fans, his family, friends and blues enthusiasts, such as audience member Julie Kennedy. This was her first time at Legends.
“This was an opportunity that I could not pass up,” Kennedy said.
Before Guy performed, singer Laretha Weathersby and her band played “Proud Mary” and other classics. In her silver-sequined dress, Weathersby’s energetic dancing and witty ad libs warmed up the crowd.
Weathersby was not the only one clad in glittery garb. Another blues legend, Bobby Rush, sported a sequined blazer and sang with his friend Buddy Guy. The pair weaved stories and jokes into their songs, talking about the days “back then.”
“I started the rap game, and he started the blues game,” Rush said, gesturing to Guy. “Hold on … I never showed you this, Buddy.”
Sliding on a sparkling glove, Rush did jazz hands, and “hee-hee’d” around the stage, saying that Michael Jackson got his signature style from Rush.
Buddy Guy has played and learned with legendary musicians like Muddy Waters. Guy went on to inspire famed rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, among others.
As a world traveling performer, Guy’s impact on blues expands far beyond Chicago. Connor Korte has toured the world as Guy’s guitar technician, going everywhere from India to Brazil. Korte has fond memories of his time as a tech, one in particular at the New Orleans Blues Festival where he was pranked by a famous guitarist.
“(He) tickled this ear, but his head was over here,” Korte said, gesturing to his opposite shoulder. “I turned — and there was Carlos Santana.”
While Guy spends time with acclaimed musicians, past and present, he also keeps his family close. As the February performance came to a close, his children came on stage to sing and play with him. That included Greg Guy, who was recognized as a “Honorary Master of Blues” by the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.
Greg recalls spending a lot of time practicing guitar by himself. His father would model a song in front of him and ask, “Have you got that?”
“At that time, his fingers were like lightning,” Greg said. “I thought the older he would get, the slower he would get — but surprise, surprise … he will pull something out of the bag on you.”
At the performance, audience members hooted and clapped each time Guy sang between guitar licks. At one point, he picked up a drumstick and began slapping his guitar strings to create a unique sound. His son says engineering new ways of playing and keeping his audience surprised is something Guy has always done.
Photo by Anna Barth
Greg said he will always remember when Buddy Guy played his friend Jeff Beck’s guitar. Beck, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer from England who died in 2023, had a device called a whammy bar that bends the pitch of a note.
“What is he going to do with that thing?” Greg asked. “But I hear this sound from the PA system, and I am like, ‘what?’”
The night ended with Buddy Guy signing autographs at the front of the club, while Greg took to the stage, a perfect encapsulation of what Buddy Guy is trying to ensure — that blues is passed down to the next generation.
Greg also has suggestions on how the blues can stay relevant.
“Request it more on radio stations,” he said. “In my lifespan, I have seen a lot of young blues artists … keeping it alive.”
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