Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive And Well album review

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Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive And Well

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Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive And Well

1. A Few Good Years
2. Guilty As Charged
3. Cognac (featuring Jeff Beck and Keith Richards)
4. The Blues Is Alive And Well
5. Bad Day
6. Blue No More (featuring James Bay)
7. Whiskey For Sale
8. You Did the Crime (featuring Mick Jagger)
9. Old Fashioned
10. When My Day Comes
11. Nine Below Zero
12. Ooh Daddy
13. Somebody Up There

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As the big beasts fall away, Buddy Guy’s latest album reaffirms his death-bed pledge to BB King to hold the line. 

Even now, at 81, the old Chess-era renegade can still surface to kick your teeth in – see the Strat-flaying Somebody Up There or End Of The Line (where Guy casts himself as ‘the last man standing on an empty stage’). 

This lone soldier is at his best when the cavalry arrives, with Jagger honking on a languid You Did The Crime, and Keef tussling with Jeff Beck over a fine Cognac. 

Those three guests notch up a combined age of 221, and it would have been nice to see the spotlight shone on younger faces. 

With a classy cameo from James Bay on Blue No More, there’s hope for the future – and any album that ends with a 57-second song about wanking off a bull is alright in our book.

Henry Yates
Henry Yates

Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more.