The local college station had been playing cuts from Buddy's latest, "Sweet Tea," a couple of months before it had been released. Specifically, the second cut on the disc, Baby Please Don't Leave Me, caught the most airplay. It sounded like Buddy had ingested a bunch of 'shrooms and stepped back forty years in time to influence such psychedelic bands as Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company. A seven minute plus jam, bathed in reverb and backed by a simple rhythm line, it resembles more of a wail than yer typical blues vibe.

This time out, Buddy abandoned the slick sounding horn arrangements that diluted the emotive feel of previous recordings. He stripped the sound down to the basics - guitar(s), bass, and drums - cranked up the amps to '11' and proceeded to rip it up. Only the first cut, Done Got Old, is accoustic. If it weren't for the intimate way Buddy intones the lyrics to this song, you'd think he was pulling your leg. The rest of the tracks on the CD testify to the fact that at 65, Buddy can play as intensely as anyone laying down blues licks today.

To the album's detriment, there doesn't seem to be much originality in the songs. It sounds like Buddy has tuned in to the relatively recent wave of artists like R.L. Burnside and the late Junior Kimbrough that have defined (redefined?rediscovered?), for lack of a better term, the 'North Mississippi' sound. Perhaps "Sweet Tea" is Buddy's 'take' on these guys.

Then again, blues is not so much about originality as it is about conveying a feeling or eliciting an emotional response. On both counts, Buddy Guy has struck a mighty powerful chord with "Sweet Tea."

Whaddya think?