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New York — Two months after his 90th birthday, Buddy Guy is still preparing for a little bragging, a lot of cursing and a long night of partying.
The blues great was celebrated Thursday night with a sold-out show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, where Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan led an audience for much of the three-hour-plus “Buddy’s Got the Blues” concert.
Guy himself was only on stage for part of the time, but his name was heard throughout, and his spirit was always present. One of the last of the Chicago bluesmen to flourish in the mid-20th century, Guy has become so iconic of the genre that musicians didn’t need to play his songs to claim his legend.
John Mayer, with pain in his voice on Otis Redding’s “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember” and Eric Gales and Joe Bonamassa jamming on Jimmy Reed’s standard “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” seemed as appropriate as Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks reviving an old Guy-Junior Wells favorite, “Messin’ with the Kid.”
But no one was going to top the guest of honor. Guy, wearing a dark cap, dark pants and a polka dot shirt, opened the show with a long acoustic rendition of John Lee Hooker’s “I’m in the Mood” and seemed to be getting worse after taking out his electric guitar.
He joked and joked with longtime friend Shemekia Copeland on a duet of “Rock Me Baby,” left no doubt about the meaning of “living all night” in Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” and continued even more when one of his few peers, Bobby Rush, joined him, just a month away from his 93rd birthday. Everyone came forward at the end for “Got My Mojo Workin.”
Guy is still making plans. His team announced this week that he has a new album out next year, produced by Jordan and featuring multi-instrumentalist Ivan Neville, bassist Willie Weeks and others who performed at Radio City Music Hall.
Guy didn’t seem to have much on his mind at first Thursday other than the next double entrant or the next challenge. “Help me with this song,” he liked to shout. But the tributes given by the younger actors and the presence of Rush, who confirmed that he would have walked from Mississippi just to be here, left him moved and close to tears.
“I didn’t think this number of people would come out for a 90-year-old man,” said Guy, after he was sure he didn’t have the strength to blow out so many “f-kin candles” on the cakes that were brought out at the end. “This is the greatest day I’ve ever been in my life.”
