Buddy Guy
Sweet Tea

First of all, who are we talking about? Buddy Guy is a guitarist and singer born in 1936. After moving, like many bluesmen of the time, from his native Louisiana to Chicago, he became one of the leading figures of the West Side movement in the early 60s, when a new generation of black blues musicians from the west side ghettos of the city came into the spotlight. This movement, which included others like B.B. and Freddie King, proposed a new blues model, infused with soul elements, predominantly characterized by the prominence of horn sections.
Well, there's none of that in this album. Sweet Tea is nothing but an extremely gritty, raw blues record, with nothing sweet about it. An album energetic and intense, in short, as only a few 65-year-olds can make.

The album kicks off with "Done Got Old", a voice-acoustic guitar track where the bluesman expresses all his bitterness about the passing of time ("can't do the things I used to do, because I'm a old man"). A raw and rough piece, with evident delta blues reminiscences, where the bluesman's voice becomes more expressive than ever.
In the following track, "Baby Please Don't Leave Me", Buddy Guy's guitar riffs and vocals create a sense of suspense, an aura of tension that only dissolves at the end of the track.
Another notable piece is the 5th track, "Tramp", a typical Hendrix-style blues that slightly breaks the dark and vaguely hypnotic atmosphere that has formed.
"Look What All You Got", "Stay All Night" and "She Got The Devil In Her" are nothing but classic 12-bar blues, as simple as they are intense.
"I Gotta Try You Girl" is a lengthy track (12 minutes!!!), perhaps a bit heavy, but characterized by such rhythmic monothematicism that it makes the whole thing almost hypnotic, which certainly helps to reach the end without the temptation to skip.
The 8th track, "Who's Been Foolin'You", is undoubtedly the most carefree piece on the album, almost a rock'n'roll, very fun.
The last track, "It's A Jungle Out There", represents a worthy end to this fine album. Indeed, it is an extremely pleasant, mild, and refined piece.

In conclusion, a very interesting album, not so much for what's in it, as there isn't much new compared to what yesterday's and today's bluesmen have made us listen to, but for how the aforementioned material is interpreted, which exudes extraordinary intensity and energy.