Concert Review – Buddy Guy at House of Blues, Cleveland

went to see Buddy Guy on Tuesday night at the House of Blues. This was (I think) at least my fifth time seeing Buddy, following shows in 1993 at the Blues Music Festival at Blossom Music Center with my comrade Jim, a show later in the 90s at the Agora with my comrade Mark. Mark and I saw Buddy again last year in Chicago at Buddy’s club, as he was preparing to shut down and move to a new and larger location. Buddy in a club that was 100 person capacity? It was pretty crazy. We were looking at the pictures on the walls from shows featuring ZZ Top(!) and a 4 night stand from Eric Clapton. Imagine that. Later that same year, I saw Buddy in a slightly larger venue – a local stadium outside of Chicago for Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.

All of that brings us to Tuesday night at the House of Blues where I caught Buddy Guy with my comrade and felllow blues fan Tracy. I didn’t realize this going into the show, but Tracy hadn’t seen Buddy prior to that night’s show. And Buddy was ON FIRE….what a great show to see for your first show from a blues legend.

I could have gone home after he played Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues…which is MY tune…..the one I always hope to hear when I go to see Buddy.

Kristine Jackson (hear her music on Myspace) opened the show. I hadn’t seen or heard her before, but was well aware of her from friends that are fans of her stuff. She was great – definitely need to see her again.

Kristine Jackson – God’s Gonna Cut You Down (Johnny Cash cover) (live at the House of Blues, opening for Buddy Guy)

Here’s the link to my review. Warning – it’s got some raw language, conversation from some of Buddy’s stage raps. If you’re offended by bad language, you’ll want to avoid this link. Also, please note that though the review references the Legends show as being from earlier this year, it was indeed January of 2007.

click here

Buddy Guy – Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues (live 1994)

P.S. – I see now from the website for Buddy Guy’s Legends that apparently Legends still hasn’t moved to the new location. Can someone in Chicago confirm that? And here, we were all stoked thinking we had seen one of the final shows at the old location. Tickets we paid WAY more than face value for, by the way 🙂