Nice Guy

This is an exclusive and limited edition of the Alice Cooper 2CD live album „No More Mr. Nice Guy Live“, recorded during the legendary Halloween Show on October 29, 2011 in the Alexandria Palace, including all top hits of this exceptional artist.

Buddy Guy today remains one of the true international superstars of the Blues. One of his musically most glorious periods was the three classic albums he cut for JSP Records ("D.J. Play My Blues" "Breaking Out" and "Live at the Checkerboard Lounge") and the guesting on brother Phil Guy's wonderful debut album "Red Hot Blues". This compilation features some of the best cuts from that period and those albums. Buddy plays some hot guitar here and is stylistically moving forward from his sixties stuff to the ultra commercial things of today. Buddy always knew that the world would catch up eventually and he would become a superstar - the music here will tell you why.

Once again working with producer/songwriter Tom Hambridge – the bluesman's main collaborator since 2008's Skin Deep – Buddy Guy serves up a straight-ahead platter with Born to Play Guitar, his 28th studio album. Many of Guy's latter-day records loosely follow a theme, but Born to Play Guitar is pretty direct: just a collection of songs designed to showcase Buddy's oversized Stratocaster. Which isn't to say there's either a lack of variety or pro forma songwriting here. Hambridge cleverly colors Born to Play Guitar with a few bold, unexpected flourishes: the sweeps of sweet strings that accentuate "(Baby) You've Got What It Takes," a duet with Joss Stone that lightly recalls Etta James' Chess Records work; the big, blaring horns of "Thick Like Mississippi Mud" that moves that track out of the Delta and into an urban setting; the acoustic "Come Back Muddy" which performs that trick in reverse, pushing Chicago blues back down south.

Buddy Guy's career and discography have been marked by inconsistency. Especially since his high-profile comeback in the early '90s, it seems he's been all too willing to turn over creative control on his albums, both for better and worse. Even just looking at the covers of those albums bears this out: 1991's Damn Right I've Got the Blues has him dressed in your basic '90s casual dress, but the next album has him wearing overalls! Anyone who saw Guy live any number of times before that album was released would realize that he never wore overalls. Then fast forward to the neo-psychedelic look of Heavy Love. The productions themselves have been similarly schizophrenic: big glossy guest star-laden albums to a heavy blues-rock sound to deep modal electric blues to acoustic albums. Well, this time out, drummer/session man Steve Jordan is in the producer's chair, and it seems that he wanted to give Guy a more contemporary sound…

Buddy Guy's music has changed a great deal since this album was recorded in Chicago in 1981. It is possible that Guy has never sounded better than this, tearing into some deep indigo blues, letting his guitar wail loud on every cut, and playing with inspiration, especially on the title cut and "Dedication to the Late T-Bone Walker," a track that seems to spring from some place deep within himself. Nor was he the only one on fire at the sessions. Brother Phil Guy shares the guitar work and contributes vocals to both "Garbage Man Blues" and "Mellow Down." The recording makes no attempt to capture a wide audience. This is Buddy Guy playing and feeling the blues, pure and simple, without any sense of compromise - and it's all the better for it, putting much of the rest of his catalog into perspective. Rarely is the blues this heartfelt - and rarer still is it so well played. If this were his only recorded legacy, he'd still warrant the stature he's achieved.

When Steve Tyrell's version of "The Way You Look Tonight" found its way onto the soundtrack for 1991's Father of the Bride, chances are he had no idea that it would eventually lead to a second career incarnation as a pop/jazz vocalist. After years of working in the shadows as a songwriter and producer, Tyrell suddenly found himself in the limelight with two successful albums of standards that were Top Ten hits on the jazz charts.