Living blues legend Buddy Guy performs at the Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave., with John Hiatt & The Goners, featuring guitarist Sonny Landreth, Saturday, July 23 at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the show go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, March 25 at The Pabst and Riverside box offices, by phone at (414) 286-3663 and online.
Guitarist (and notable blues nightclub owner) Buddy Guy is touring in support of his latest record, “The Blues Is Alive and Well,” which follows his Grammy-winning “Born to Play Guitar.”
If those titles don’t tell you that the 83-year-old Guy is on something of a musical mission, then he’ll tell you himself.
“I got children and grandchildren who didn't know who I was, but nowadays we can play outdoor concerts and see kids that are eight, 9, 12 years old coming to me and saying, 'I didn't know who you was, but I read what Eric Clapton said about you'," says Guy.
"I'm always trying to make an album that someone accidentally plays where some kid hears it, picks up a guitar, and helps keep the blues alive."
The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and performer Hiatt has written songs for everyone from Dylan to Raitt and has played on more than 1,300 albums (not all his own, of course), including his latest effort as a leader, 2021’s “Leftover Feelings.”
Mississippi’s Landreth is a slide guitar player of wide renown whose appearance takes an already impressive concert lineup to still another level.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.