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He just might be the greatest blues guitarist alive. At 72, Lord knows Buddy Guy has the experience, and he’s always been the wild man in the way he attacks his instrument. Some might even say the Louisiana-born musician overdoes it, but that’s the way it turned out. He was the youngblood on the Chicago scene in the ‘50s, and had to turn it all the way up to get attention back then, working next to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and the other giants there. Buddy Guy knew what he had to do, and did it. One of his early Chess Records singles, “First Time I Met the Blues,” is so good it’s still scary, and set the course for his next 50 years. Skin Deep walks the fine line between being a street-smart collection of sharp-eyed music and an enormous canvas for the guitarist to splatter big-toned blues notes all over the place. Never one to be accused of restraint, Guy doesn’t hold back here either, but the difference is he sounds like he’s got himself inside the songs, since he and producer-drummer Tom Hambridge wrote them all themselves. Being a modern blues album, of course, there’s a mixed bag of special guests--Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph and Nathan Williams--and each offer their own special gifts. The Clapton duet, “Every Time I Sing the Blues,” even sounds like it could be a new classic, an answer to B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” where the two guitarists go toe to toe in a cutting contest. And Randolph’s steel guitar fits perfectly next to Zydeco Cha Chas leader Williams’ accordion, pointing to a whole new hybrid possibility. Tip: One of the best blues albums ever is Buddy Guy’s A Man And The Blues, featuring pianist Otis Spann, drummer Fred Below and guitarist Wayne Bennett, released on Vanguard Records in 1968. Mercy.
