Buddy Guy - Bring Em In

For a bluesman who has clearly earned himself a spot in the pantheon of guitar greats, Buddy Guy really doesn't need to be recording his albums by committee anymore. But it's something he's been doing for years -- two of his best selling albums to date, Damn Right I've Got the Blues and Feels Like Rain, featured the likes of Jeff Beck and Bonnie Raitt -- and it works for him. And unlike Carlos Santana, who has jammed with flavor of the week acts like Michelle Branch and Everlast on his collaborative albums, Guy almost always plucks legitimate blues artists who do little damage to his street cred. His latest effort, Bring Em In, is no different. Ironically, Santana appears on the album. Guy works best when he's paired with musicians who know how to share the spotlight. He hooks up seamlessly with Keith Richards on Keb Mo's "The Price You Gotta Pay" and with Tracy Chapman on a mellow take of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." But Guy gets run over roughshod by Santana in their cover of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins classic, "I Put a Spell On You." Santana seems to forget that he's playing guitar on someone else's album. A duet with John Mayer, his touring partner this past spring, on Otis Redding's "Dreams to Remember" is also surprisingly enjoyable. Mayer would be well served to stick to playing the blues on his own albums – his work here confirms that he's wasted too much time and talent on the acoustic pop scene. The only real flop on the album is a cover of "Lay Lady Lay" with Anthony Hamilton and Robert Randolph that sounds like it was recorded for the soundtrack of a bad romantic comedy on the Lifetime channel. And in case you’re keeping score, Guy only performs one of his own songs (“What Kind Of Woman Is This) on the album -- but it’s damn good. The lack of original material actually makes the album a more accurate representation of his scatterbrained stage shows. He’s been known to kill entire concerts with 30-second snippets of other people’s tunes. In all, Guy deserves credit for a solid effort that's got some serious soul. It's just not the stuff of legends. [www.buddyguy.com]