Concert Review: Buddy Guy 90: The Blues Are Still Burning at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN
- Pat Rogers
- 41 minutes ago
- 4 min read
There are concerts you attend, and then there are moments in music history you are lucky enough to witness.
Buddy Guy's appearance at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium was firmly in the second category.
At 90 years old, Guy isn't simply touring. He's carrying more than seven decades of American music history onto the stage with him. The Buddy Guy 90 tour, with Christone "KINGFISH" Ingram opening the night, wasn't merely a celebration of a birthday. It was a celebration of the blues itself, from the artists who built it to the musicians now carrying it forward.
And there may be no better place to tell that story than the Ryman.
Before Guy took the stage, Kingfish made a compelling case for the future of the genre.
The Clarksdale, Mississippi native has become one of the most important young voices in modern blues, and his connection to Guy runs much deeper than simply sharing a bill. Guy became a mentor to Ingram when the young guitarist was still a teenager, helping guide him toward a career that has since made Kingfish one of the brightest stars in contemporary blues. Making his presence on this tour feel almost poetic.
Buddy Guy has spent his career keeping the door open behind him. He did it with Kingfish. He did it for Jonny Lang and countless musicians before them.
Guy's own story began in Lettsworth, Louisiana, where he was born in 1936 into a sharecropping family. He eventually made his way to Chicago in 1957, where he became a central figure in the city's explosive West Side blues movement and recorded for Chess Records.
From there, the story becomes the stuff of music mythology.
Guy's fiery guitar playing, emotional vocals and unpredictable stage presence helped redefine what an electric blues guitarist could be. His influence would eventually reach artists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
That influence is difficult to overstate. Buddy Guy didn't simply play the blues. He helped change the way the blues could sound, feel, and breathe on stage.
And while his name is permanently etched into the history of the genre, his importance isn't confined to the past. Guy has remained one of the blues' most visible ambassadors, including through Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago, the legendary blues club he opened in 1989.
That same philosophy was alive inside the Ryman.
Guy's set was a master class in what makes the blues timeless. He moved through decades of music with the ease of someone who has lived through its evolution rather than simply studied it.
"Damn Right, I've Got the Blues" was an appropriately explosive opening statement.
Then came Willie Dixon's "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," followed by Johnnie Taylor's "Cheaper to Keep Her" and later in the night was John Lee Hooker's "I'm in the Mood."
These weren't simply songs pulled from a setlist. They were strands of blues DNA that helped build
the world Buddy Guy has inhabited for most of his life.
That's what made the night so powerful. He isn't performing these songs like museum pieces. He's keeping them alive. There is an enormous difference.
At 90, Buddy Guy could easily be forgiven for simply resting on his legacy. Instead, he continues to perform, record, collaborate and advocate for the music that gave him a life. His 2025 album Ain't Done With the Blues featured an extraordinary collection of musicians, including Kingfish, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton.
He continues creating rather than simply looking backward. And perhaps that is the greatest lesson of the Buddy Guy 90 tour. The blues aren't supposed to be preserved behind glass. It's supposed to be played.
Loud. Raw. A little dangerous. A little dirty and with enough soul to make a room full of complete strangers feel the same thing.
Guy's legacy has always been about more than guitar playing, although there is certainly no shortage of that. He's a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, a multiple Grammy winner, a Kennedy Center Honoree, and a recipient of the Presidential National Medal of Arts. He has also been recognized among the greatest guitarists in music history. But awards don't explain what happened inside the Ryman.
They don't explain the feeling of watching a 90-year-old man pick up a guitar and remind an entire room why music matters.
They don't explain why a young guitarist like Kingfish can stand on the same stage and make the future of the blues feel every bit as exciting as its past. That is Buddy Guy's real legacy.
For decades, Guy has helped ensure that the blues didn't become something generations simply talked about in a past tense. He has continued passing it down, from the legends who influenced him to the young musicians he has encouraged, mentored, and put in front of audiences.
There is something profoundly moving about seeing that cycle continue.
The man who once absorbed lessons from Muddy Waters and the greats of Chicago's blues scene is now standing on the Ryman stage at 90, still teaching the next generation.
Buddy Guy has spent a lifetime proving that the blues isn't dead.
At the Ryman, he reminded us that it isn't simply alive. It's still breathing, still burning, and still waiting on the next generation to pick up a guitar.
Kingfish may be carrying that torch forward, but Buddy Guy is still holding it high. At 90 years old, the legend isn't fading into history. He's still creating it.
Comments