Front and center pbs buddy guy biography

In high school, Guy would play his guitar at the gas station where he worked for the entertainment of customers, but when he was hired to play a local club, he was too shy to sing to a crowd and was fired. Still, he had come to love the blues — and inwhen a friend told him he should go to Chicago because the city was teeming with joints where you could hear the blues for free, Guy took the train to Chicago and began soaking up the local music scene.

The rest, eventually, became history, but there were many years when Guy was working days as a tow truck driver and playing in the clubs at night for little or no money. Guy hooked up with the legendary Chess Records, but brothers Phil and Leonard Chess wanted Guy to tone down his louder-than-loud sound and be more of a session player than a front man.

But when Buddy Guy played live, his freewheeling style killed. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. January Learn how and when to remove this message. CMA Songwriter Series [ edit ]. List of episodes [ edit ]. References [ edit ].

Front and center pbs buddy guy biography

Retrieved 18 December Chicago Public Television. Retrieved 18 December — via www. Rolling Stone. The blues guitar legend has influenced some of the greatest guitarists of all time, including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Gary Clark Jr. Jumping around on stage, playing the guitar behind his back, and picking with his teeth brought him lots of attention, especially from an experimental guitarist from Seattle who was recently discharged from the Army named Jimi Hendrix.

The future virtuoso not only reinvented the sound of the electric guitar, but he also drew on the showmanship Guy displayed. Honored and humble about being recognized, Guy says he saw his contemporaries as better guitarists, so he had to find his own style. That came from being inspired by different types of music, ranging from gospel to country — a mix he equates to a Louisiana culinary specialty.

Yet, all of the styles he put into his playing required extreme perseverance. Growing up in the Jim Crow era South and raised in a sharecropping family, Guy became fascinated the first time he saw someone play guitar. But actually having one to put in his hands and play created an obstacle he needed to overcome.