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REVIEWS

Buddy Guy—Ain’t Done With The Blues —Sony Music ASIN
: B0FDM4NSNP

I thought that Buddy’s last album, 2022’s “The Blues Don’t Lie”,
was a masterpiece, will this new one from the 89-year old also
produced by Tom Hambridge be as good? – well Bobby Rush is
still putting out great music in his 90s. We begin with a short

acoustic version of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boogie Chillen’
apparently the first song Buddy learned to play, a strange choice
for an opener but ‘Been There Done That’ is a rocking
Hambridge/ Gary Nicholson song that tells the story of Mr. Guy’s
life - “My life is like a movie, been there, done that - still alive and well…” ‘Where U At’ is a funky
song with Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram on guitar, while ‘Blues on Top’ is a nice slow blues with

Buddy’s cutting lead guitar over the top of rolling piano.

The album was recorded in New Orleans and Nashville with Hambridge (drums) and Rob
McNally (guitar) on all tracks, and with Kevin McKendree, Mike Rojas or Chuck Leavell
(keyboards) and Tal Wilkenfeld or Glenn Worf (bass). ‘How Blues is That’ is another
autobiographical song by Hambridge/Richard Flemming with slide guitar and vocals from Joe
Walsh and ‘Dry Stick’ is a delicious, poignant 50s-style ballad with Buddy in fine voice and Joe

Bonamassa adding his lead guitar – lovely track. ‘It Keeps Me Young’ is a real rocker with Peter
Frampton guesting on guitar and vocals and ‘Jesus Loves a Sinner’ is a modern gospel song with
the Blind Boys of Alabama adding their vocals.

Buddy also pays his respects here to blues artists who influenced him along the way, like Guitar
Slim on ‘I Got Sumpin’ for You’, Lightnin’ Hopkins on ‘One from Lightnin’’, Earl King with ‘Trick
Bag’ and J.B. Lenoir’s ‘Talk to your Daughter’. I don’t think this album is quite as good as ‘The

Blues Don’t Lie’ but there are some great tracks here and Buddy can still play and sing as well
as ever. Sure Hambridge’s production and song-writing are a bit slick but ‘Been There Done
That’ and ‘How Blues is That’ are really catchy, while still retaining that blues sensibility. Also,
while some of the songs do spill over into rock Buddy has always stretched the blues genre – in
the 60s he incorporated songs by James Brown etc. into his act to the disgust of blues purists
but this was what the younger crowd in Chicago wanted to hear at the time. Rock on Buddy!

Graham Harrison

Various Artists—A Tribute to the King of Zydeco—Valcour
Records ASIN : B0DVM2HBMZ

This tribute to the great Clifton Chenier starts with a bang with
Steve Riley from the Mamou Playboys joining the Rolling Stones
for a jaunty version of ‘Zydeco Sont Pas Sales’ with the guitars
combining with Steve’s accordion and Mick adding harp along
with his vocals. Charley Crocket and accordionist Nathan
Williams contribute a bluesy ‘Easy Easy Baby’, with nice guitar
from Roddie Romero then it’s another bluesy number with Taj
Mahal and accordionist Keith Frank sharing the vocals on ‘Hey