A great open secret of the last act of
Buddy Guy's career is that nearly every album he's made in the new millennium is a concept album of sorts, ranging from the gnarled modern Delta blues of
Sweet Tea and the acoustic
Blues Singer to the pseudo-autobiography of 2010's
Living Proof.
Rhythm & Blues trumps them all in size and concept: it's a double-disc set divided into one disc of "Rhythm" (aka soul) and one disc of "Blues" (aka blues of the Chicago variety). Several stars come out to help
Guy along, top-lined by three-fifths of
Aerosmith on "Evil Twin" and
Kid Rock on, naturally, "Messin' with the Kid." The former arrives on "Blues" and the latter on "Rhythm," which suggests how fluid the lines are between the two discs. But it's also generally true that the "Rhythm" disc is big, bold, and brassy in a way
Buddy rarely is; often, it's much closer to the late, great
Bobby "Blue" Bland, albeit a hyper-charged, over-scaled version of soul-blues.
Guy has rarely attempted this kind of horn-driven, soulful blues and it's fun to hear him tackle such sounds as he wrestles the rhythms while spitting out gonzo, gnarly guitar runs. Better still, he finds a place to settle down within the slinky grooves of "I Go By Feel" and the
Keith Urban duet "One Day Away," which are not only the two greatest surprises in tone, but also the two songs that sink their hooks in deep. That's not always the case here, at least for the originals, particularly on the "Blues" disc which either trades in pastiche ("Meet Me in Chicago," "All That Makes Me Happy Is the Blues") or function as simple showcases for
Guy's guitar. If this package can sometimes feel a little too pat, put the blame on producer
Tom Hambridge, who also helmed
Skin Deep and
Living Proof and now has a track record of pushing
Guy just enough to form a narrative but not enough to break him out of the box.
Buddy himself remains a bit of a live wire, his voice sounding younger than
Steven Tyler's and his guitar continuing to be a muscled monster that steamrollers everything surrounding it. That continued potency is reason enough to give
Rhythm & Blues a spin. [An LP version was released in 2013.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine