Published on Nov 17, 2001
Though it is a given Buddy Guy is one of the best blues players
on the planet, the last couple of years have put a slight tarnish
on the legend’s reputation: Some of his releases had a bit too much
studio gloss applied and his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends, may have
ticked off some blues purists much like the House of Blues.
Be it inspiration or a calculated image makeover, Guy went back
to the deep, dark, woodshed-like blues style which has been a
trademark of the best work of Guy’s influences, mainly Muddy Waters
and John Lee Hooker. At the same time, by using a deep, repetative
bass line in a couple of his songs, Guy’s latest album,
Sweet Tea, has an odd sort of futuristic sound to it. It’s
almost as if Guy has been listening to Portishead and Massive
Attack during some off-time on his tour.
The first song, “Done Got Old,” has Guy’s voice sounding like a
ghost blowing through the floorboards of a barn. “Well I done got
old/I cain’t do the things I used to do.” Fairly simplistic lyrics,
but when music is this powerful, screw subtle wording and
metaphors. The second song, “Baby Please Don’t Leave Me,” features
a ruthless, deep bass line, which will no doubt usher in some
Portishead comparisons.
Most of the songs on
Sweet Tea deal with the inevitable hard punches life deals,
namely jilted love and mortality. Bob Dylan took this approach with
Time Out Of Mind and was able to inject a renewed energy
into his career. Though some may criticize Buddy Guy for drawing
too much on
Time Out Of Mind, they shouldn’t. The album should be
appreciated on its own merits.
Sweet Tea deserves a huge amount of credit for making epic
songs seem like three-minute songs on the radio. One track, “I
Gotta Try You Girl” lasts more than 12 minutes, but Guy’s electric
playing mesmerizes you enough not to look at your watch. On
Sweet Tea, Guy also enlists a killer band lineup. Davey
Faragher’s bass sounds like it would be at home at a blues or a
trip-hop album. Spam (no last name given) does just as good a job
on rave-ups like “Look What All You Got” as he does on songs where
the mood has to be slowed down, as in “Tramp.”
Practically all of the songs on
Sweet Tea are interpretations. Like Cowboy Junkies, Guy has
made all eight of the covers on the album his own. Only on the
closing track, “It’s a Jungle Out There,” does Guy have writing
credits. This should not be a negative aspect of the album,
however, if all of the tracks on
Sweet Tea were originals, we would have a certified
classified on our hands.
Like Dylan, Guy came on to the scene when popular music was in
dire need of a hard-core ass-kicking. If you are a casual fan of
the blues,
Sweet Tea does a great job of integrating newer styles while
maintaining an authenticity that would make blues purists proud.
Perhaps the best reason to buy
Sweet Tea is Guy’s voice. Envigorated, confident and full of
bluster, this album marks the comeback of an artist who has always
been able to remain viable in all sorts of industry changes. One of
his recent albums is titled
Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues; on
Sweet Tea, it sounds like Guy could have called this album,
“You God Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues.”