NEW YORK – At 90, Buddy Guy still has plenty of swagger, a sharp sense of humor and the stamina for a late-night celebration.
The Chicago blues icon was honored Thursday at a sold-out Radio City Music Hall concert, where an all-star cast and a house band led by Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan kept the crowd on its feet through more than three hours of music during the “Buddy’s Got the Blues” celebration.
Guy spent only part of the evening onstage, yet his presence loomed over every performance. As one of the last surviving Chicago blues musicians from the genre’s mid-20th-century heyday, he has become such a defining figure that artists could evoke his legacy without even playing his songs.
John Mayer brought a wounded tenderness to Otis Redding’s “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember.” Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa traded licks on Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” while Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks revisited “Messin’ with the Kid,” a longtime favorite associated with Guy and Junior Wells.
Still, the evening belonged to its guest of honor. Dressed in a dark cap, dark trousers and a polka dot shirt, Guy launched the show with an extended, gritty acoustic version of John Lee Hooker’s “I’m in the Mood.” Once he picked up his electric guitar, his energy only intensified.
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He flirted and traded jokes with longtime friend Shemekia Copeland during “Rock Me Baby,” then made Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” unmistakably suggestive as he sang about buzzing all night long. The mischief continued when Bobby Rush joined him; Rush, who turns 93 next month, is one of the few remaining contemporaries from Guy’s era. The full lineup eventually returned for a celebratory “Got My Mojo Workin’.”
Guy is not slowing down. His team announced this week that a new album is scheduled for release next year. Jordan will produce the project, which is expected to feature multi-instrumentalist Ivan Neville, bassist Willie Weeks and other musicians who performed at Radio City Music Hall.
At first, Guy appeared focused mainly on delivering the next double entendre or profanity, repeatedly urging the musicians to “help me f—k up this song.” But the younger artists’ tributes, along with Rush’s emotional declaration that he would have walked from Mississippi to attend, clearly touched him. Guy was visibly moved and nearly in tears.
“I didn’t think this many people would be coming out for a 90 year old man,” Guy told the audience after admitting he lacked the strength to blow out all the “f—kin’ candles” on the cakes brought out near the finale. “This is the greatest day I ever had in my life.”
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