Blues Great Buddy Guy Hits Milwaukee

March 7th, 2006 by Hennessy

Buddy Guy’s in town tonight, which should be a helluva show.

The Journal Sentinel has a good interview with Buddy, which puts his career and his life as one of the premiere bluesmen.

One evening, a friend of his father’s dropped by to show off a guitar he acquired. Guy was fascinated by the sounds the man was able to produce on the instrument. There was no money in the family coffers for luxuries such as a guitar, so Guy fashioned a crude version from an old lighter fluid can, a piece of wood and wire pulled from the window screens.

“You couldn’t actually finger the notes,” he says. “But you could get the sounds.” Guy chuckles as he recalls how angry his mother was when mosquitoes got in the house through the holes in the screens.