Live Nation presents… Buddy Guy with special guest Jonny Lang at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba Sept 21, 2012.

Jonny Lang took the stage first and this guy was simply incredible to watch. For only being 31 years old, Lang absolutely WAILS on his guitar. Some how this you kid from Fargo, North Dakota, just south of us, has the voice of a 70+ year old blues singer. I will not go as far to say that Jonny was crazy on stage as far as his antics go, but you can see his passion in every single note. As well you can just tell he loves what he is doing there is no “phoning it in” for the night he gives it 110%.

Now comes Buddy Guy. I didn’t know that much about him prior to the show except that he was a blues singer from Chicago. Little did I know how much he would blow my mind! As I sit here with a splash of whiskey and a Buddy Guy vinyl on the record player I am taken back to the show again. For a 76 year old man he gave one hell of a performance. Covering other artists like Marvin Gaye and Eric Clapton he mixed in a number of his own songs. The younger musicians today could stand to take a lesson from this living legend. Not only did he play a solid 90 minute set his crowd interaction was simply incredible. More then once he stopped playing to tell the crowd to “quit f*cking his shit up” or he just simply teased the crowd saying that he was going to open a blues bar here in Winnipeg which of course brought a loud cheer from the crowd. Now Buddy also did something that I did not expect at all. He took his show to the crowd. During one of his solos he simply walked off the stage and strutted throughout the crowd getting pats on the back and in one womans case a hug.

This is definatly one of the top 10 shows for me this summer. It was simply a joy being able to sit and enjoy a evening of phenomenal music.

About The Author