Search - Buddy Guy :: Slippin in

Cheryl K. from RICHFLD SPGS, NY
Reviewed on 9/17/2009...

Solid Buddy Guy. I enjoyed this album.

Buddy Guy's best album of the past two decades

Christopher | Harrison, Arkansas | 08/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Buddy Guy is one of the last bluesmen left from a great era. He is what Jimi Hendrix would have been had Hendrix stuck strictly to the blues. While he may not think he is one of the best, he certainly deserves to be up there with Muddy, Howlin' Wolf, and BB. One reason is because of this album, definitely his best in the past 20 years, and definitely one of his top three. Here, Guy delivers what everyone expects of him: screaming guitar work and powerful, powerful vocals. There is no better blues singer in the business than BG, and as a guitar player his style is uniquely recognizable, and has no equal. The best tracks on this disc: I Smell Trouble (with Double Trouble guesting), Please Don't Drive Me Away, Love Her With A Feeling, Someone Else Is Steppin' In, and Don't Tell Me About The Blues. Those may be the best, but the disc as a whole does not have one weak track on it. I happen to like the clean sound of this album. If you can make it clean and keep the grit, that is awesome. Buddy did it with this album. However, nothing compares to seeing him live. He is one of the best live acts ever! Do yourself a favor: if he's ever in your neck of the woods, be sure to go see him. You won't regret it. LONG LIVE BUDDY GUY AND HIS POLKA DOT STRATOCASTER!"

4 1/2 stars. Probably Buddy Guy's best latter-day album

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 01/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"1994's "Slippin' In" from 1994 is an even more genuine blues record than 1991's Grammy award-winning "Damn Right I've Got the Blues".

Sure, it is a shade more antiseptic than Buddy Guy's classic Chess sides, and the clean production has sanded away most of the grit, which is a bit of a shame. But it is still a really fine album. Guy stays away from stereotypical funk and generic day blues-rock shredding and actually plays the blues, and both his guitar playing and his expressive and flexible tenor voice is strong and focused all the way through.



"Slippin' In" features Double Trouble's Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon on several tracks, and none other than the late, great Johnnie Johnson is playing the piano. Johnson was Chuck Berry's pianist for many years, a masterful, versatile musician who plays slow blues, jazz, driving R&B, and punchy rock n' roll with equal briliance. He is a tremendous asset here, and his solo on "7-11" completely takes over the track.



There are plenty of highlights here, and hardly any let-downs at all. Guy has only written three of the eleven songs himself, but he does a good "Don't Tell Me About The Blues" (originally a single for Bobby 'Blue' Bland), enthusiastically and intelligently covers Denise la Salle's wonderful "Someone Else is Steppin' In", and lays down a great, punchy rendition of Jimmy Reed's classic "Shame, Shame, Shame".

His own slow blues "Little Dab-A-Doo" is another highlight, again partly due to the presence of Johnnie Johnson, and Guy's take on Lowell Fulson's "Love Her With A Feeling", and the slow, soulful "Trouble Blues" are very enjoyable as well. Guy gets off a couple of terrific, sizzling solos on Lowell Fulson's song, which he plays like a hard-hitting Muddy Waters-tune, and he tears through



"Man Of Many Words" is a very obvious rip-off (it's Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle"), and one or two of the other songs have been recorded many times before as well - albeit with different lyrics! But even blues clichés like "Please Don't Drive Me Away" and "I Smell Trouble" are very well executed and played with a passion, and the combined forces of Buddy Guy's axe and Johnnie Johnson's tinkling 88s in particular make "Slippin' In" a really enjoyable album. The grooves are deep and swinging, and Guy himself sounds like he is having a good time.



Fans of genuine Chicago blues, and of Buddy Guy in particular, will not want to miss this one. Highly recommended!"