Blues Explosion

Arguably the greatest bluesman alive, Buddy Guy proves unstoppable. Recording half of
Slippin' In with his own Chicago band and Chuck Berry's piano ace Johnnie Johnson, he
then turns loose with Stevie Ray Vaughan's former backup band, Double Trouble. Guitarists
from Clapton to Van Halen have marveled at Guy's Strat work (check the full-bore workout,
"7-11"); if anything, his singing ("Please Don't Drive Me Away," "Cities Need Help") i... More >

For Jon Spencer to make fun not of old black bluesmen but of the white hippies who emulated them so crudely just makes him an ass coming and going. Given his cultural-chronological advantages, what right does he have to dog, oh, Bob Hite, who did scour the South for lost artists and recordings as well as conceiving Canned Heat, a pretty decent band in the end, even if they were less heply dissonant than Jon's? And do you really believe he doesn't relish the excuse to play-act a racist stereotype that increases his stupid sex appeal? Irony--an excuse for anything and a reason for nothing. (Grade - B-)