Sweet Home Chicago
I Can't Quit You Baby
(with B. B. King)
Blues Jam
Hoochie Coochie Man
GUITAR SPACESHIP
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American blues and
rock guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan,
and other guitarists, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues.  Guy is known for
his showmanship: for example, he plays his guitar with drumsticks, or strolls into the audience while
jamming and trailing a long guitar cord.

Born in Lettsworth, Louisiana, Guy grew up in Louisiana learning guitar on a two string diddley bow
he made. Later he was given a Harmony acoustic guitar, which he later donated to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. In the early '50s he began performing with bands in Baton Rouge. Soon after moving to
Chicago in 1957, Guy fell under the influence of Muddy Waters. In 1958, a competition with West
Side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush gave Guy a record contract.

While Buddy Guy's music is often labeled Chicago blues, his style is unique and separate. His music
can vary from the most traditional, deepest blues to a creative, unpredictable and radical gumbo of
the blues, avant rock, soul and free jazz that morphs at each night’s performance.

In addition, Guy's pathfinding guitar techniques also contributed greatly to rock and roll music. Guy’s
guitar playing was loud and aggressive; used pioneering distortion and feedback techniques;
employed longer solos; had shifts of volume and texture; and was driven by emotion and impulse.
These lessons were eagerly learned and applied by the new wave of 1960s British artists and later
became basic attributes of blues-rock music and its offspring, hard rock and heavy metal music. Jeff
Beck realized in the early 1960s: “I didn't know a Strat could sound like that — until I heard Buddy's
tracks on the Blues From Big Bill's Copa Cabana album” (reissue of 1963 Folk Festival Of The Blues
album) and “It was the total manic abandon in Buddy's solos. They broke all boundaries. I just
thought, this is more like it! Also, his solos weren't restricted to a three-minute pop format; they
were long and really developed.”

--
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: January 21, 2009
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Guy)
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