INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Phil Guy and The Chicago Machine
Thursday, Nov. 1, 9 p.m., 21+
Chicago blues singer/guitarist Phil Guy doesn’t mind being known as Buddy Guy’s brother (they’re four years apart, Phil’s the younger). His new album, He’s My Blues Brother (Black-Eyed Records), even features his famous sibling playing guitar and singing the title track.
“He always gets the leads. He was always a picker. He was always out front,” Phil says. “I wanted to be a rhythm player. That’s where my style is.”
Over the years, when Phil became a bandleader, he had to learn to take the lead.
“Having my own band was the next thing. I just wanted to make an album,” he says. “I like to play a whole lot of different stuff. On the new album, there’s some blues, R&B and even a little jazz.”
Growing up in Louisiana, Buddy was a major influence on Phil’s music. When Buddy went to Chicago to break into the blues business, Phil spent over a dozen years touring with Raful Neal.
“Raful was a straight-ahead blues player,” he says. “Then one day, Buddy called and needed a rhythm player. So I went to Chicago. Back then, all of his rhythm players wanted to play lead. He needed somebody to keep the mules in the right direction (laughs). That’s all I wanted to do. The first thing I did when I moved up there was a tour of Africa — 13 different countries.”
Phil spent 10 years in his brother’s band, followed by backing up the likes of Big Mama Thornton, Memphis Slim, Koko Taylor, Son Seals and Albert Collins. By the ’90s, he went solo and started recording albums overseas.
“I couldn’t get recorded in the United States. I couldn’t get recorded in Chicago,” he says. “The record labels wanted Buddy, not me.”
While Buddy was a straight-ahead blues player who would later build a bridge between rock and blues, Phil mixes his sound up more.
“I’m trying to go back to the old rhythm style,” Phil says. “[It’s] a simple, fun night of music. There will be a little something for everybody.”