Customer Reviews

Sweet Tea

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Buddy Guy takes the blues in a powerfull emotional direction with Sweet Tea. To me and to many other Buddy Guy fans, what separates Buddy from many other "want-to-be" blues players is emotion. Here on Sweat Tea, he lays it all out there. You can hear the love for the blues, you can hear the swamp and feel the power that is true Buddy Guys blues.

Any doubt, just check out Tramp. For those Stevie Ray Vaughn fans out there, if you want to here where Stevie came from, this is a perfect album.

Buddy Guy is great.
This album is not.
I found the production, especially the overabundance of reverb and effects, unsuitable to Buddy.
I don't know what they were thinking. I can see why after this he recorded the acoustic Blues Singer album, as this experience could not have been a pleasant one.

An essential?! The best blues album in the past 10 years?! Hardly. This album is a collection of songs by the artists of the Fat Possum Label (T-Model Ford, Cedell Davis, and Junior Kimbrough) which have been covered by Buddy Guy. Why has he abandoned the sweet fluff he's been pumping out the past 15 years in favor of raw rural blues? Has he seen the light? Or is it a move by him and his label to cash-in on the sector that Fat Possum has dominated for the past 10 years? Either way, Guy's covers do not contribute to any of the originals in any way, so don't waste your time. Go to the sourcec, check-out T-Model Ford, Cedell Davis, or the late Junior Kimbrough, and see for yourself where the real blues are found. And what's with the shack on the cover?!

I loved this CD. If it were vinyl, I think I'd have worn a groove in it by now. I was pretty clueless to the whole Mississippi Hill country artists and FatPossum scene, so I thought this was an incredible burst of creativity by Buddy Guy. Well, its not exactly. He is covering several of the Fat Possum artists that both together and individually breathe a new life into the blues. Since I bought this CD, I have started to explore these artists and love them too. But I can still go back to this CD without feeling like it is some ripoff. Buddy is covering a lot of Junior Kimbrough tunes on this CD, but he really puts his own stamp on it. He lets the rythym of Junior's original material be the launchpad for some great moaning and soulful guitar work. I read another review on here that complained that this album wasn't "Delta blues" and that Buddy wasn't such a great guitar player. Well, I honestly don't know what belongs in the "Delta Blues" pantheon, nor am I qualified to critique his fingering technique. But I know he takes some songs that were great by the original artist and plays them true to their essence, while adding his own moody style. It sounds awesome and I don't care about what else it is or isn't.

If you haven't heard the Fat Possum artists, I think there is a sort of desperation in a lot of the lyrics and nonsensical rythym. At least Junior Kimbrough's music feels that way. Buddy seems to be pleading with a woman in "I gotta try you Girl". It sounds like an intimate relationship, but when he gets to her response, she calls him "Mr. Guy". What is that about? It leaves you wondering if the whole song is about some unsavory relationship where they aren't even on a first name basis. But there is no doubting their passion for one another either. It is the kind of thing that seems to slide in under the radar with this style of blues and make it more interesting. The same song ends in some wild guitar work. It includes a sound effect like a clap of thunder, which another reviewer apparently didn't like. It seemed appropriate to me after that solo.

Tramp, which is my favorite song on the album has some incredible guitar riffs. They are slow and moody, moaning on. The original Junior Kimbrough version, sounds like Junior is three sheets to the wind, kind of mumbling, so its nice to actually hear the lyrics on Buddy's version. Although, Junior does a great slashing slide guitar solo on his version, Buddy's version feels truer to the mood of the song. One song starts out like the band is just warming up and picks up a groove. Someone else calls out, "Keep it going. Keep it going."

Yeah. Keep it going, Buddy. I for one, wouldn't complain a bit if you returned to the Fat Possum well of original blues material, again and again.

A great CD - but does one of the reviewers REALLY think Junior Kimbrough etc. are impoverished? Actually, they have done rather well by Fat Possum.... The question is rather whether Silvertone and the producer have done well by Buddy Guy....

I read the two star of this album and had to respond, 1st) the acoustic quality of the CD is fantastic, 2nd) the track selection isn't so much an album as it is a selection and statement on different aspects of the blues, 3rd) Buddy Guy puts so much soul into this album that I find my B&K amp haunted by him later.

This is one of the best Blues CDs of the past 10 years.

I have been disappointed in Buddy Guy ever since the early 80's when I arrived at his concert in Paris with front row center orchestra pit seats only to find the show "cancelled" at the last moment. I kept the faith and kept up with his cd production - only to be let down with what I heard, i.e. at times annoying vocals and predictable range of blues standards with new lyrics - BUT THIS ALBUM renews my faith as it is the CLOSEST THING TO HAVING JIMI HEMDRIX BACK - as you all know, Hendrix, Clapton, Page etc... ALL acknowledge their debts to Albert King, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Freddie King and Buddy Guy (of course there are others). In fact, the main differences between the "original" blues leads and the "rock and roll" leads were distortion, feedback, effects and volume. Many parts of Jimmy Page leads are note for note Buddy Guy lines. On Sweet Tea, Buddy Guy plugs into some high gain amplification and lets the Voodoo come forth. His version of Lowell Fulsom's TRAMP - is earth shattering - If you are looking for some heavy blues played by one of the original electric guitar greats in a style reminiscent of the late great Jimi Hendrix (Red House, Hear My Train a Comin' etc ...) this is a must buy! Like the finest tea from the mountains of the Far East - Sweet Tea is a pleasure to sit back and enjoy.

I had been riding on a string of disappointments with recent efforts by Buddy Guy - but Sweet Tea is an oasis for all those who were set adrift with the passing of Jimi - yes, Robin Trower is great and we can all listen to traditional blues and old Hendrix albums and dream of the past - but this cd is a revelation. All you need to do is read some interviews with Hendrix, Page, Clapton and the rest to know how much they owe to Albert King, Otis Rush, B.B. King and of course Buddy Guy - like sipping the finest tea - this is the sound!!!!

This CD has really grown on me. At first I guess it was just too different, didn't give me the "rush" that I listen to Buddy Guy and his Chicago colleagues for. The drum-corps percussion was a distraction, for one thing. But then one day the music clicked. Some listeners love this album a lot; for them, it can be gritty, loud, mannered and stylish all at the same time, and still works. For you others, don't give up too soon.

Buddy Guy's "Sweet Tea" is one of his finest albums. It is, for the most part, stripped down delta blues. He mostly covers older delta blues artists such as junior kimbraugh, who, regardless of what some others seem to think, is a fine blues musician in his own right. This album is most definitely delta blues, only showing Guy's chicago roots on the final cut. There is scarcely a twelve bar on the whole album, relying heavily on the driving I chord riff work of Delta Blues. It is a fine album, and notably different from most of his other work.