Skin Deep

72-year-old Buddy Guy is a name that blues fans hardly need an introduction to. The elder statesman of blues is one of the gods of the genre, and one of the few still-active musicians who had the honor of working with blues giants Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. Buddy is like wine. For Skin Deep he gathered a charming bunch of friends, most of whom he himself has cheerfully “lectured” on the basics of the blues over the decades in the role of mentor. So here you’ll find Eric Clapton, the phenomenal steel guitarist Robert Randolph, and slide guitar master Derek Trucks.

Right from the start of the album it’s clear that Buddy isn’t messing around. Guy serves it up immediately with Best Damn Fool, unleashing a fiery storm of emotion on the listener in his own inimitable style. The signature moves, which the guitarist refines with hot-blooded guitar barrages and his typically smudged, dirty lyrics, instantly hint at the power of the raw nature of the traditional school of blues. What follows is no less spectacular! To Many Tears carries on in the manner of its predecessor, but this time accompanied by the sultry voice of Susan Tedeschi. Together with Guy she forms an incredibly infectious combination, full of exciting exchanges that can get under the skin, especially of the more timid album consumers. In the more accessible category, we soon run into Show Me The Money, a sort of tribute to Chicago blues of the more easy-listening kind.

Buddy Guy is a man of exceptional character and humor, so the gentleman can allow himself plenty. With Who’s Gonna Fill Those Shoes, for instance, he takes on a cynicism-soaked cross-section of the modern blues scene, which, truth be told, is sorely missing characters of his kind. Don’t believe it? Then treat yourself to a descent into Lyin’ Like A Dog. The song draws its life force from Guy’s roots, which lead us through traditional blues deep into Albert King territory. The dangerous journey ends in a slightly more rural manner, as Out In The Woods finds us knee-deep in the swampy soil of the lower Mississippi. One of the album’s peaks is surely the dark Every Time I Sing The Blues, which plays out as a venomous showdown between two legends of guitar blues. Guy communicates fantastically with Eric Clapton here, both on guitar and vocally. The raw show of strength erupts at the end into an epic clash of improvisations, rounding off yet another unrepeatable get-together of two icons of blues music.

Buddy Guy has always hammered out his thorny path to stardom with sharp, distinctly electrified intonation, so the guitarist’s flirtation with infectious melody can easily catch many a careless listener off guard. At first glance Skin Deep shows Buddy’s gentler side, but above all it’s a nicely balanced display of musical maturity, which with its bold slowing down of the pace compared to the rest of the album builds a bridge between two completely different worlds. Guy is no stranger to confections with seductively harnessed melodies — in fact, with Skin Deep he steps right alongside the giant of this kind of genre, Robert Cray.

Skin Deep will surely not sell in enormous numbers. Truth be told, any attempt at making even a symbolic mark on the charts would in every respect exceed realistic expectations. Of course, there’s no need to point out that Guy won’t let such trifles bother him. And rightly so! With Skin Deep he’s managed to create a sensational album that, with its spicy stew of the new and the traditional, throws a bone to modern blues troubadours. Required reading for true-blue blues enthusiasts!