Blues-guitar legend Buddy Guy lets loose on his new record, Skin Deep, a collection of all-original material with slash-and-burn solos aplenty. While jamming on some of these latest songs, he reminisces in this session with host David Dye about his musical roots in small-town Louisiana and subsequent rise to fame on Chicago's West Side.
Born in 1936 to a sharecropper family in Louisiana, Guy constructed his first guitar at age 7 out of string, wood and hairpins. He played it whenever possible at the plantation until he obtained a real instrument a decade later — a Harmony acoustic that now sits on display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1957, Guy left Louisiana for the first time by taking a train to Chicago. The rest, as they say, is history.
With his name on dozens of albums spanning decades, Guy hasn't slowed down in the least: Skin Deep offers a personal look at racism, drawn from Guy's childhood of Jim Crow laws. His quintessential electric blues and his strong, emotional vocals make for an album that only adds to a remarkable legacy.
This segment originally aired Oct. 31, 2008.
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