As Brownie McGhee once said, "The blues is life."
Nowhere knows that life better than Chicago, which has been the world's blues mecca for more than a century. And this weekend, a slew of legendary musicians were recognized in a special ceremony at the city's premiere blues club.
The Blues Hall of Fame ceremony at Buddy Guy's Legends read like a who's-who of the local circuit, including performances by Mud Morganfield, Toronzo Cannon and Harvey "T-Bird Huck" Huckstep.
Buddy Guy himself, the man responsible for grooming artists from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, was on hand to receive his award. Other inductees included Billy Branch and the late Muddy Waters.
Guy was one of the first performers to popularize the Chicago blues style, born after the Great Migration brought droves of black workers from the south to major northern cities.
Late last year, in a star-studded ceremony at the Kennedy Center, he received the prestigious national award for his lifetime contribution to the arts.
"Without Buddy Guy, the blues, not to mention rock as we know it, might be a heckuva lot less interesting today," Vaughan famously said in an interview with Guitarist magazine. "Take the blues out of contemporary rock music--or pop, jazz and funk for that matter—and what you have left is a wholly spineless affair. A tasteless stew. Makes you shudder to think about it."
Craving a hearty dose of Chicago blues? Take a look at some of the best venues to get your fix below:
