Buddy's Baddest (The Best Of Buddy Guy) - Buddy Guy

Advantages: Makes you realise just how cool Blues can be
Disadvantages: The sound quality though not bad might put some people used to 'polish' off

...I always forget just how much I like Blues until I start listening to it again, though it can be hard to find it really pure and passionate these days. I have a couple of other Buddy Guy albums; one early on, his recordings for Chess Records, where he was a session player and though his desire to do so, was never allowed to cut loose (a mistake the head, Marshall Chess, recognised late on in the sixties when the likes of Hendrix, Clapton et al were crashing to stardom). The other, Damn Right I Got The Blues, from the nineties never quite cuts it. So what a pleasure it was to stumble upon Live At The Checkerboard Lounge. Live At The Checkerboard Lounge is not quite a purist album but it's pretty close. Buddy Guy was approached by JSP Records, then with virtually no catalogue to produce a live album, as Guy at the time could hardly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: This man can play
Disadvantages: Not a lot of lyrics

...For this recording session Buddy Guy has returned to his roots and used a recording studio called Sweet Tea, the Oxford, Mississippi studio, is also owned by the producer of this album, one Dennis Herring. For this session Mr Herring has assembled an extraordinary band of black Mississippi veterans in the shape of Spam on Drums and Sam Carr also on drums along with some younger white players Jimbo Mathus on rhythm guitar on bass Davey Faragher and another drummer in the form of Pete Thomas. The opening track of this 2001 recording finds Buddy half-singing and half-muttering while he picks out the tune of the song “Done got old”. With the opening line of the track proclaiming “well, I done got old, can’t do the things I used to, cause I’m a old man, and I’m not the same”. As the song ends... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: It's Buddy Holly - Enough Said!
Disadvantages: Unfortunately, Buddy's guitar disappears behind the over dubbing

...Unfortunately after Buddy's death, his Manager, Norman Petty hired the Fireballs, who overdubbed much of the original guitar and music by Buddy & the Crickets. The result is that the original music is so far back in the mix, they might as well have not bothered! Buddy Holly was without doubt a musical genius, he was experiementing with elementary overdubbing before his untimely and tragic death. Therefore it is a great shame that Norman Petty treated his music this way. If you want to hear the real Buddy Holly, then there are available collections which have the original undubbed music on them, but you may have to shop around. Buddy's music is far too important and indeed, enjoyable to be treated this way, and you the listener deserve the real thing, rather than a heavily overdubbed version.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful