Man & The Blues

Buddy Guy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B000000EJW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,894 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Chicago Blues
  • #29 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Contemporary Blues
  • #33 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Electric Blues Guitar

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Man and the Blues... In Full, April 6, 2002

By 

Roger Alburn (West Chester, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man & The Blues (Audio CD)

This album does a bunch of things. It is perhaps the seminal work of what musicologists call "second-generation Chicago blues." This is the blues form which remains the template for most popular blues produced today. In these performances, Mr. Guy alloys soul and rock figures with the Chicago blues vernacular. As a result, his album released blues to a truly pan-racial and cross-generational following. Most had never witnessed real blues music before. Mr. Guy's fret-board work illustrates the liquid tone possible from that pre-eminent electric guitar, the Fender Stratocaster. His technique transducts the passions of his elders uncorrupted. We hear them today from the hands of hundreds of young guitarists. This is the record that certified Buddy Guy's career. He is arguably the most original blues performer alive.

For some listeners this album has been something of a millstone around Mr. Guy's neck. His successive albums never reached the elegance of this one. Need they? Today, thirty-five years afterwards, blues production values have evolved. Mr. Guy's blues are evolving too. His 2001 release "Sweet Tea" blends the sensibilities of rap and alternative with the newly fashionable product called "electric Delta." "Sweet Tea" hasn't the irreducible beauty of "A Man and the Blues." Yet it does show Buddy Guy's intensity as synthesist and artist little diminished.

Some would eject Bach or Mozart into space for other civilizations to evaluate us with. I'd send "A Man and the Blues."

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars probably Guy's best solo effort, January 12, 2006

By 

The Delite Rancher (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Man & The Blues (Audio CD)

I was shocked to find that Buddy Guy's "A Man and the Blues," only had a handful of reviews. This is an essential recording that should be in any Blues collection. First, the guitar work is powerful. Guy's Fender Strat plays clean, thin and nimble lead work. Second, the vocals are compelling. Buddy Guy's voice was strongest during his early career. Here, his voice is high pitched, clean and full of soul. Third, the song choice is tops. There are no weak songs on "A Man and the Blues." 'One Room Country Shack' could be a definitive statement of what the Blues is all about. Many of the fast blues tunes like 'I Can't Quit The Blues' 'Money' and 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' are three minute parties. The brass brings so much to the danceable feel-good grooves. The disc has a beautiful retelling of the standard 'Sweet Little Angel.' The only drawback to this 1967 recording is the length -it's too short. It all comes down to guitar work, vocals and song choice. For these three reasons, Buddy Guy's first was probably his best solo effort and it should be in your Blues collection.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars defines electric blues, June 27, 2005

By 

N. Chandran "vpcnk" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Man & The Blues (Audio CD)

this album is very very very special. you can feel that magic throughout the album.

having played as a guitarist for many blues stalwarts including muddy waters, this was buddy guy's first outing as a band leader. and what an album it is!

the fretwork is not the screaming blues of say, stevie ray. rather it is the controlled fury, delicate and subtle but always straining at the leash, of a master guitarist who knew how to maximize the potential of the "bell tone" of a fender stratocaster. almost every song on this album is a killer - but "one room country shack" is in its own class - the quintessential blues number which has seldom been surpassed in its genre.

if you like the electric guitar or the blues - get this album!

also check out the other killer albums of buddy - stone crazy (where buddy totally cuts loose with a gibson es-335) and hoodoo man blues (his best collaboration with junior wells).

btw the amazon reviewer is not right in saying that buddy uses a 57 strat - it is rather a 58 strat - because it was only in 1958 that fender came out with a three tone sunburst which buddy's strat obviously is.