Blues at Buddy's

Hello all,

After some newly discovered influences, I've decided to start writing blogs again.  Not for the feeling that I think my life is that important and must be shared but solely for the fact that it does, in fact, help me with writing new lyrics and tunes for you all.  Well that, and I get asked all the time what is going on inside my head when I play... So I dig in.

This past Monday started like any other. Woke up, had my protein shake and numerous vitamins, did some cleaning like I always do, and then off to the gym I went.  Like any other day.

After playing a school "welcome" day in Oswego, I decided to head out to Buddy Guy's Legends in downtown Chicago.  It's a place that I hold in very high regard and if you have ever been there you know why.  I'd been there before with various friends, some musicians, some just lovers of music and others who just wanted to drink that night. But it's always been a special place for me.  Like it's always been just mine.  Even though, I imagine, everyone's experience would be different, let me try and describe mine.

Even before getting into Chicago, I truly believe that the drive in is part of the "Buddy Guy's" experience.  not so much for traffic inbound on 290 but more for the fact that when that signature skyline comes around that corner, I'm always filled with a sense of wonderment.  Sounds cheesy and cliche I know but it's true.  There's always been something about the towers in the sky, usually accompiuded by a clear night, surrounding stars and most of the time blues pouring through the speakers of my car.  That moment alone is worth the drive most of the time.

Actually, driving into Chicago has always flooded me with thoughts and memories and even some crazy dreams.  First and foremost os driving like a bat of of hell is an old Mount Prospect police car though lower Wacker drive.  I know it's never going to happen but it's a fun thought that always brings a smile to my face.  Lots of found memories flicker through my mind as I turn onto State street and usually wait at the next light, next to a CVS.  Even on a Monday night the city is alive with people.  Walking to somewhere, from somewhere, all with places to be and important things to do.  Usually for the next 2 blocks that I have to drive to Buddy's I have on Ramesy Lewis's version of "What's New," not sure why but it seems to be a perfect fit for the mood I'm in.


It's really the sign of Buddy's that catches your eye first.  Playing a custom made acoustic, just for him of course, and a smile that let's you know good times are ahead.  Just looking at it shoots a jolt of energy through you and the anticipation is building up inside you for what lay ahead.  Walking in the door, showing your I.D and if you're a musician, no cover needs to be paid,  quite a perk.  It's the little things in life...

And then...
It all hits you at once.  It's like the place is alive on it's own and you feel like you've step into music itself.  It's like all the other blues clubs you've heard about in the regard that it's a low light with a stage, black chairs and tables, most of the walls are brick.  It just screams blues.  Guitars hung in the wall, signed by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Johnny Lang, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton,  It's every guitar players wet dream in there.  Photos of Buddy with people like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Muddy Water and Junior Wells.  It's a blues club, it's a bar, it's a museum to all the greats.  Museum isn't the right word, an homage to them.  To blues itself really.

The house band starts to play and they come out with a jazz tune that just hits you in the face.

"Welcome to Buddy's!  You have no idea what you're in for tonight."

And after 3 songs, they launch into a slow blues, which I'm more partial too anyhow, and the whole room goes quiet.  Listening to the drums and bass find that sweet, sweet pocket, the guitar just barely wishpering above the sound of drink orders and clinking glasses.  The whole room is captivated, silent and entranced and yet on the edge.  You see it in their eyes.  You see it as they move their feet and bob their heads to the sound of the snare.   You see that in a single moment, they are all, that we are all connected to blues.  No matter the background, the color of their skin, the money in their pocket or the story of their life, in that moment, they were all connected.  That's a moment that I will live for my entire life.

  As a musician, to be able to achieve something like that, to bring everyone in that room into your world.  To play something, to make something like that.  I can't even find the words for it but to be there and to see it.  It's a purely magical experience.

I could go on for days about playing, playing at Buddy Guy's.  Listening to some of the most amazing blues men and women I've ever heard in my life.  But I know I can't do them justice.  It's kind of like this.

You could read the words

"I've got a sweet little angel and I love the way she spreads her wings."

Granted a powerful line but if you out a horn section, a rhythm section that defined the phrase  "In the Pocket"  and B.B. king playing Lucile and singing those words.... you feel it.  you feel the love, you feel what he feels.  ...........  You feel!