Name	Buddy Guy
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	July 30, 1936
Place of Birth	Lettsworth, Louisiana
Famous for

Slash-and-burn guitar solos are the specialty of this Louisiana-born Chicago blues mainstay, whose string-sizzling sides for Chess in the '60s (and session work at the label for artists including Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf) made a particularly strong impression on Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. The Complete Chess Studio Recordings is an exhaustive collection of his early singles, but MCA's single disc Buddy's Blues makes a stronger impact by skipping the filler and diving right into his best-known hailstones and fire-storms, like My Time After Awhile and Stone Crazy! A Man and the Blues, his Vanguard debut and first proper album (previous Chess titles had been singles compilations), is similarly drenched in Stratocaster-ignited fire; highlights include a soulful crack at "Money (That's What I Want)," the playful "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and "Just Playing My Axe," an extension of Keith Richard's signature "Satisfaction" riff. Both Hold That Plane and the live This Is Buddy Guy are fun if not quite as consistent, though they supplement A Man and the Blues handily on the three-disc Complete Vanguard Recordings. Touring with harmonica player Junior Wells in the '70s, Guy added R&B licks and chunks of rock to his trick bag. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues features indebted guests along the lines of Eric Clapton, while Drinkin' TNT and Smokin' Dynamite catches the duo's act at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Last Time Around, recorded in 1993 but not released until '98 (after Wells' death), is a document of their last performance together, at Guy's own Legends nightclub in Chicago. Guy recorded less and less frequently during the '70s and '80s, though his intermittent outings during that era found his stun-power relatively undiminished -- witness the righteously wailin' Stone Crazy! from 1981. Rhino's The Very Best of Buddy Guy is an exemplary overview of the guitarist's career through that point, including a pair of singles he cut for the Cobra label before the Chess years.

Beginning with the Grammy-winning 1991 Silvertone set Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, however, Guy's comeback began in earnest. Even with its requisite superstar walk-ons (Clapton and Jeff Beck this time), Damn Right is a thoroughly satisfying dose of pure Buddy Guy fretwork. Feels Like Rain was a decent follow up, though this time the guests start to weigh things down. It's not so much that vocalists Paul Rodgers and Travis Tritt stink up the joint, but their presence is unnecessary; while justifiably best known for his guitar playing, Guy is no slouch as a singer -- as comfortable here belting out his own rocker "She's a Superstar" as he is easing into Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man." Fortunately, Slippin' In is Guy's show from start to finish, with a crack band including Chuck Berry pianist Johnnie Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble rhythm section, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon. Nevertheless, by Live: The Real Deal, a strong but predictable set featuring G. E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band, Guy's Silvertone run seemed fresh out of ideas -- until Heavy Love and its followup, Sweet Tea. The refreshingly modern, if uneven, Heavy Love was nothing if not eclectic, offering everything from jump blues to soul to funk to psychedelic hard rock to a ZZ Top cover ("I Need You Tonight"). But Sweet Tea was something completely different, returning Guy to his Southern roots for an inspired -- and frequently chilling -- collection of swampy hill-country blues numbers cherry-picked from the Fat Possum songbook. Spooky fare like Junior Kimbrough's "Done Got Old" and James "T-Model" Ford's juke-joint shakin' (as opposed to big-city nightclub rockin') "Look What All You Got" aren't Guy's normal stock in trade, but he wears it all convincingly well. The acoustic Blues Singer, from 2003, is an even more back-to-basics affair, with many of the songs fea-turing just Guy, his guitar, and those devastat-ing "Hard Time Killing Floor," "Lonesome Home Blues." (MARK COLEMAN/RICHARD SKANSE)