Buddy Guy — Ain’t Done With the Blues

Buddy Guy’s latest fireball goes by the name of Ain’t Done With the Blues. The truth in its title becomes blatantly obvious within seconds and keeps on resounding throughout the remaining 65 minutes. But that should be of no surprise, coming from the reigning master of electrified blues. Even at 89, the Louisiana-born Chicagoan shows zero sign of letting up, still rattling walls and shaking the earth with his telltale brand of intensity.

That brand dates back to the tail end of the 1950s, when he, Magic Sam and Otis Rush formed the trinity of young architects who drew up blueprints for the West Side’s new and extra-exciting style of fretsmanship. Of them, Guy opened the spigot the fullest. Floods—absolute floods—of scolding-hot notes, runs, bends, gouges, squeezes, wails and slashes can rush out. If that doesn’t emit enough adrenaline, his voice, tensely tortured as well, screams up alongside to top off, then explode above, the highest of his guitar’s moonshots. Fireworks bursting atop fireworks.

His first recordings—which includes 1958’s “Sit and Cry (The Blues)” and 1959’s tenser-yet “This Is the End,” both on the Artistic label—certainly gave an early taste of his combustibility. Soon after, “First Time I Met the Blues” struck for Chess in 1960: two minutes of concentrated terror. 1961’s “Stone Crazy” agonizes for seven.

Things only kept ramping up from there. Hendrix to Clapton to Vaughan to Gary Clark Jr. kept more than a keen watch.

Flash ahead—past Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues; Feels Like Rain; Sweet Tea; and 2022’s The Blues Don’t Lie—to Buddy’s current earthshaker, Ain’t Done With the Blues. Its 18 tracks—enough to make a double LP for vinylphiles—take stock of where he now stands while also spending time peering into the rearview mirror. Of the look-backs, “Been There Done That” compacts a lifetime’s worth of events and achievements into a nutshell summary. A nutshell summary that notably rocks out.

Accordingly, production was under the helm of Tom Hambridge, a longtime confidant who also orchestrated 2010’s Living Proof, 2015’s Born To Play Guitar, as well as 2018’s The Blues Is Alive and Well—each and every one a Grammy winner for Guy. That way the sound here runs extra hot and vibrant, extending those benefits to the resident blues and lone gospel number (the supercharged “Jesus Loves the Sinner”) that likewise receive varying degrees of rock-worthy scale and urgency.

And in keeping with the recent trend in Guy’s albums, a select handful of invited guests—four singing guitarists plus the Blind Boys of Alabama, to be exact—lined up outside the studio door, just itching to join the fray with his Damn Right Blues Band. The carousing Joe Walsh, for instance, helps dish some of the lines to “How Blues Is That,” a lyrical game of lowdown one-upmanship played atop a stomping ruckus flamed by ferocious twin guitars. (Walsh bottlenecks his.) “Where U At” shines up its funky, New Orleans energy with a horn section. But the big artillery arrives in the blustery form of Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.

Joe Bonamassa also cameos (the philosophizing “Dry Stick”). So does Peter Frampton (a revitalizing “It Keeps Me Young”), the now 75-year-old rocker who split from Humble Pie to go famously solo in 1971. That same year, Buddy & the Juniors became the most unique addition to Guy’s discography: an exceptionally loose, unplugged collaboration with harpist Junior Wells and pianist Junior Mance.

Guests are undoubtedly nice but not necessary, though. Because Guy has always been a self-contained thrill show. For starters, “Blues On Top” is a straight-up slow blues. Pinned beneath the crushing weight of heartache, the lyrics groan their complaints while that guitar of his supplies running commentary throughout by squeezing off notes here, clanging others, bending a bunch to the breaking point. “Blues Chase the Blues Away” locks into a take-charge, heavy-stepping groove as he snarls about the music’s cathartic powers. Its constantly piercing fills and short-but-nasty solo do the trick therapeutically.

“I Got Sumpin’ For You” traces to one of his absolute idols, Guitar Slim. It was Slim who impacted a young, impressionable Buddy with his flashy stage presentation that tethered the wildman’s axe to his amplifier by way of a long, long, long cord. Guy, too, would come to use a never-ending cable, 100 feet long, that enabled him to keep playing while wandering off the stage, through his audience, out the door of the club, and onto the sidewalk outside. Although inconspicuous, that history resides in the herky-jerkiness of how “Sumpin’” lurches on down the street.

Ain’t Done With the Blues isn’t all Stratocaster roar, however. The amplifiers turn off for short snippets of solo, acoustic reverence that nudge the music back to its roots. “Hooker Thing” and “One From Lightnin’” rest upon Guy’s best impression of their respective honorees, John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. “Talk To Your Daughter” likewise unplugs. But rumbling drums fall in behind to fill out the signature piece belonging to the ever so distinctively voiced J.B. Lenoir.

But once the amps flip back on, “Love On a Budget” and “Upside Down” are among the tracks housing hotheaded, daredevil solos that’ll make you reach for your soon-to-be-battered air guitar. Because, true to his word, Buddy Guy sure Ain’t Done With the Blues. Nowhere close—thankfully.

Label: Silvertone/RCA Records

Release date: 7/30/25

Artist website: Buddyguy.net

Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski