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“THESE KIDS WERE
FOLLOWING ME, LIKE
YOU SEE ON THE
NEWS WHEN A DUCK
HAS BABIES AND
THEY’RE CROSSING
THE EXPRESSWAY.”
to the electric guitar, Guy points to an acoustic six-string in his office and
explained that he enjoys playing such songs as Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”
on that instrument. Clearly, he’s seen a lot of changes in his decades of playing,
but he feels that the basic elements inherent in his music remain constant.
“You can amplify it and electrify it, but you can still tell it’s a guitar,” Guy
said. “When the British started playing the blues with the big amplifiers,
they needed a truck to carry a load around. We used to go in a car and take
the four-by-four amplifier and drums and put them in the car. When I was
recording for Chess they had a reel-to-reel tape. Now you go into the studio
and they punch buttons. It’s all tech, but I’ve experienced a little more with
the guitar and my little singing, but it’s still the music that we began playing.
But there was no such thing as all those special effects when I started
Guy is a stellar
showman.
PAUL NATKIN/PHOTO RESERVE
playing. B.B. King had that vibrating in his left hand and nobody had that.
Jimi Hendrix came up with the wah-wah. Music goes like automobiles, first
auto had a lantern and now if it starts raining, I don’t have to turn on my
windshield wipers. How did they figure out how to do that? Music just keeps
up with everything else in creative technology.”
Guy commands a younger generation of musicians from different genres
to meet him on his own terms, especially on Rhythm & Blues. His collaborators
include Gary Clark Jr., who does a guest spot on “Blues Don’t Care”
and Beth Hart, who sings on “What You Gonna Do About Me.” Even in
a troubled market for recorded music, the 21 included songs are spread
across two CDs.
“We were in the studio and they always ask for 15 or 16 songs. When I got
to 16, maybe 17, I said, ‘Do we have enough?’ They would throw something at
me and I said, ‘Wait a minute, that sounds good, and that sounds pretty good.’
Then we got to 21 and invited Keith Urban to sing [on ‘One Day Away’]. I
said, ‘Man, you got me hooked now, just go on.’ [Producer] Tom [Hambridge]
said, ‘We’ll present them with a double album.’ I said, ‘Whatever it takes, you
can put three out there as far as I concerned.’ Hopefully, we’ll have something
that will get airplay and that some of the young kids I met wouldn’t
mind playing.” Other guests on the album include Kid Rock and Aerosmith
bandmates Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford.
But Obama remains the most prominent voice to sing with Guy. Even
though it was only for a few bars, the guitarist still can’t believe that he
made this request to the most powerful person in the world—and that the
president accepted.
“Somebody whispered in my ear, ‘He’s from Chicago and if you ask him
to sing “Sweet Home Chicago,” he might come up and sing.’ B.B. King was
sitting there and he came up and made a speech. I said, ‘Mr. President,
you can sing the first verse of this.’ If he didn’t, I would’ve felt like an
idiot. But he turned around and B.B. handed him the mic. Thank God.
The good Lord looked down on me and saved me because he did it. B.B.
said, ‘You made him do it.’ I didn’t, but I’m glad he did. To say something
to the commander in chief—and he applied it—I’ll carry that
to my grave.”
DB
48 DOWNBEAT AUGUST 2014