Buddy Guy - Ain't Done With The Blues
- chicagoblueseditor
- Sep 16, 2025
- 6 min read
Release date: July 30, 2025
RCA/Silvertone Records
By Greg Easterling
At the age of 89 nobody would expect Buddy Guy to record an album that will rank close to the top of his all-time output. But that is exactly what Buddy and his longtime producer/drummer Tom Hambridge have handed us with Ain’t Done With The Blues, Buddy’s stellar new 2025 RCA/Silvertone release. According to Buddy, “This album is about where I’ve been…where I’m going and the people I learned everything from…Muddy, Wolf, Walter, Sonny Boy, B.B. Before they passed, they used to say, man, if you outlive me, just keep the blues alive and I’m trying to keep that promise.” So, it’s not only a new record, it’s a mission. And although Buddy has finally retired from the rigors of the road as of this summer, this album demonstrates that he still has much to offer in the recording studio and as the owner of Legends, Buddy’s lighthouse for the blues in Chicago, Illinois. It’s his first album since The Blues Don’t Lie in 2022.
Recorded primarily in Nashville with additional recording in New Orleans and Los Angeles, Ain’t Done With The Blues offers us 18 tracks, most of them previously unseen originals penned by Hambridge with veteran collaborators Gary Nicholson and Richard Fleming. And there are several classic covers of artists who were influential to Buddy, blues and otherwise. As a matter of fact, the album begins with “Hooker Thing” a minute long, folksy salute to John Lee Hooker. It’s just Buddy with his acoustic guitar and an abbreviated version of “Boogie Chillen’” about which he says, “It’s the first thing I learned how to play”. It is also a great way to begin our latest blues journey with Buddy.
The album’s first original song is “Been There Done That,” which draws on experiences from Buddy’s personal history. He sings “I picked a lot of cotton before I picked a guitar”. Buddy finds a dangerous sounding groove with his signature Black and White Polka Dot Fender Strat, one of several Strats he uses throughout the album. His supporting cast includes former Allman Brother, Chuck Leavell on organ and onetime Jeff Beck bassist Tal Wilkenfeld. Leavell shines on this one and so does Buddy. “Been there done that, stories I can tell.”
“Blues Chase The Blues Away” follows which is another great song that would sound perfect on the radio next to a blues inspired classic rock song by Buddy’s friends Eric Clapton or Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The lyrics examine the irony of why singing the blues often helps one deal with the blues that come from day to day real life experiences. Buddy makes reference to his influences B.B. King and Little Walter Jacobs. He’s joined in the studio by Rob McNelley on second guitar, Kevin McKendree on piano and Glenn Worf on bass.
There aren’t quite as many special guests on Ain’t Done With The Blues. There’s actually half as many as on the previous album but this group is more specific and the first guest we encounter is Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, the young blues guitar superstar who represents the future of the blues to many. “Where U At?”, written solely by Hambridge also features Kingfish alongside Buddy on guitar and harmony vocals. It’s funky and references New Orleans inspired sites such as Congo Square, kicking off with handclaps in time before defaulting to a blues funk, wah-wah fueled exercise.
The pace slows down with the next track, “Blues on Top”, a slower 12 bar blues about a lost relationship. It’s one of Buddy’s best vocal performances as he sings about “blues on top pushin’ down on me. I’ve been at the bottom since I lost my baby. I hope she comes back to me.”
It’s about influences once more as Buddy revives a Guitar Slim jump blues number from the 1950s, “I Got Sumpin’ For You.” In contrast to the previous song, Buddy resumes the role of a confident romancer, with plenty left in the tank, while boasting, "I want to give you something I know you need”. Guitar Slim’s best known song, “The Things That I Used To Do” would have been a song that Buddy was keenly aware of decades ago.
Next, Joe Walsh steps in with Buddy, drawing from his blues rock roots with The James Gang for “How Blues Is That.” Walsh plays his inimitable slide guitar alongside Buddy on lead, also trading vocals with each other. According to Buddy, he “went to Chicago to try and get a buck” but “had a lot of doors slammed in my face. How blues is that?” Walsh’s appearance kicks off a slew of notable guest shots as Joe Bonamassa plays lead guitar on the next cut, “Dry Stick”. Peter Frampton follows on “It Keeps Me Young” and sings too. Buddy reveals that it “It makes me feel like I did when I was 21”. Buddy also embraces gospel with the Blind Boys of Alabama on “Jesus Loves the Sinner” but hates the sin. It’s not so long ago that It would have been unheard of to include a gospel number on a blues record. But it’s part of Buddy’s cultural heritage that he’s not afraid to acknowledge especially at this point in his journey.
“Love On a Budget” brings back the familiar blues theme of a partner who is cheating with the dominant piano work of Leavell, paired once again with Wilkenfeld on electric bass and Hambridge on drums. “Upside Down” is a look at the world these days. Buddy sings, “Politicians fight like cats and dogs. How did it get this way?’There’s horns on this one too with Max Abrams on saxophone and Steve Patrick on trumpet and flugelhorn.
Then it’s time for another “Hooker Thing” like moment with Buddy and his Martin BG acoustic. Only this time it’s “One From Lightnin’” That’s legendary bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins and another minute long studio salute, going something like this “I got a gypsy woman giving me good advice…”
Another bounce back moment comes next in the form of “I Don’t Forget” as Buddy looks back at Jim Crow and the days of segregation that every black man of his generation had to face. “I still got scars across my memory,” he sings, “I don’t forget the things I’ve seen.” Buddy plays acoustic at a slower tempo joined by McNelley on slide guitar and Mike Rojas on B3.
There’s one more original on Ain’t Done With The Blues before several significant covers close out the record. It’s “Swamp Poker,” a Louisiana inspired number written by Hambridge and the final one to feature Leavell and Wilkenfeld, the album’s musical links to the Allmans, the Rolling Stones and Jeff Beck.
The covers that close out the album are fun and significant. “Trick Bag” is the Earl King classic recorded by The Meters and Robert Palmer and the arrangement here stays close to those versions of the song. “Send Me Some Loving “ comes from the Little Richard songbook as Buddy goes back to the early days of rock ‘n’ roll circa 1956. And the final song on the album is J.B. Lenoir’s best known song, “Talk To Your Daughter,” covered by many over the years. J.B. and Buddy were trying to make it musically in Chicago around the same time, playing the South Side clubs and trying to survive some very lean years for the blues in town. It took the British to bring it back to us in the music of the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream and Led Zeppelin. Buddy somehow survived while J.B. did not. He was working in food service at the University of Illinois in Champaign when he was killed in an automobile accident downstate in 1967. It seems less than coincidental that the album ends on this note, but who knows?
Ain’t Done With The Blues is a fine effort that marks the end of Buddy Guy’s touring career but it needn’t be the end of his recording career. The fact that people largely stream individual songs now and do not purchase entire albums is a factor that artists consider when deciding to record albums. Perhaps the return of vinyl to the marketplace will have an encouraging effect on performers who still desire to create. As the new album demonstrates, Buddy has a great team in place led by producer Tom Hambridge; this 89-year-old is still more than capable of recording new songs as long as he is able and has the desire to do so. Let’s hope for new projects that result in more albums from this living legend of the blues, Buddy Guy.
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Website: www.buddyguy.net
Purchase and Streaming link for Ain’t Done With The Blues album:
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About the Author: Greg Easterling is a veteran Chicago radio air personality and media member of the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame. He is the host of American Backroads on WDCB, 90.9 FM in the Chicago area, Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Greg also a hosts Brass and Electric, a jazz fusion show on WDCB on Monday nights.