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July 30 was blues legend Buddy Guy’s 89th birthday. To celebrate, he released his eighth album, fittingly titled “’Ain’t Done with the Blues,” featuring 18 new tracks as a gift to his long-time and newer fans.
The multi-Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member is also on a farewell tour — the “Buddy Guy Damn Right Encore!” — stopping for one night at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center this Sunday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m.
“Now, I can’t kick my leg up high as I used to or jump off the stage like I did in my 20s and 30s,” Guy said about performing. “But I’m going to give you everything I got as long as I got it.”
Though Guy had already made a “farewell” tour last year, called the “Damn Right Farewell Tour” after earning the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, his continuing impulse to share the blues with as many people as possible led to this “encore” tour and the new album.
For Guy, the album represents a pledge he made to fellow bluesmen, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and B.B. King, to keep playing the blues.
“Before they passed, they used to say, ‘Man, if you outlive me, just keep the blues alive,’” Guy said. “This album is about where I’ve been, it’s about where I’m going, and the people I learned everything from.”
Guy also performed on the big screen this year, making a cameo appearance in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a horror film set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, as another way to promote blues music.
“They don’t play blues on your radio anymore like they used to on the big AM/FM stations,” Guy said. “So things like the movie, or performing out on the road, or making a new record — it’s important because some young people might see it or hear it and say, ‘Oh, I got to know more about that.’”
Guy’s publicist describes the guitarist and singer as an “architect of the blues, a craftsman of the building blocks that laid the foundation for today’s modern R&B,” and influential to generations of musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh contributed to Guy’s single “How Blues Is That?” released in advance of his new album.
“The project highlights Buddy’s deep Louisiana roots,” Guy’s publicist said, “with his emotionally charged arrangements and bone-chilling, hard-earned lyrics tied up in life lessons.”
The son of Louisiana sharecroppers, Guy began playing guitar and singing in Louisiana in the mid-1950s while working as a custodian before moving to Chicago in 1957 and helping shape its burgeoning blues scene with his innovative guitar style and dynamic stage presence.
After a storied career studded by numerous accolades, Buddy Guy is now considered one of the blues’ most prominent elder statesmen.
Guy said he is looking forward to performing at the Cerritos Center soon.
“I’ve played a lotta places in my time, but I’m real glad to be bringin’ the blues to Cerritos,” he said. “Nothin’ like a good crowd and a loud guitar — let’s make it a night to remember!”
Buddy Guy will perform on Sunday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Dr., Cerritos. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-916-8500 or visit CerritosCenter.com.