What a Guy

Damn right, he´s got the blues. At one time, he was the youngest member of that great fraternity of old-school Chicago bluesmen (Muddy Water, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, etc.), but Buddy Guy is now keeper of the flame as the Windy City´s unofficial king of the blues. A juke-joint prodigy as a young gun starting out in Baton Rouge, Guy has gone on to Grammy-winning glory while being credited as a major influence on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. And while he worked in the shadows for decades, the bright lights of blues stardom finally arrived in the early ´90s, with audiences basking in the blistering heat and hair-raising pyrotechnics issuing from his signature Fender Strat. His vocals can be just as fiery, and his high-energy stage show would be enough to think a young Jimi copied more than a few licks from Buddy´s repertoire.

Buddy Guy performs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, November 20, at Carefree Theater, 2000 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach. Tickets cost $45 and $49.50. Call 561-966-3309.