Sweet Tea is the 11th studio album by American blues artist Buddy Guy. The
album was
released in 2001 and was nominated for 2001 Grammy Award for Best
Contemporary
Blues Album.
A desperate, impoverished young musician moved to Chicago, Illinois in
1957 and
brought a piece of Lettsworth, Louisiana with him. Now Sweet Tea brings Buddy
Guy back
home — and the North Mississippi sound fits him sharp as a tailored silk
suit, natural as
a pair of worn overalls.
Very few artists have attempted, or succeeded, in improving the standard
template for
classic blues records set some 50 years ago in the golden age of Muddy Waters
and
Howlin’ Wolf. On Sweet Tea, Buddy Guy looks to the same source for
inspiration; seven
of the nine songs here are written by Fat Possum’s hill-country blues roster,
including
T-Model Ford and Junior Kimbrough. Working with producer Dennis Herring
(Counting
Crows, Jars of Clay) and a small collective of Mississippi-based musicians, Guy
sings with
a passion that can only come from the same source as the songs.
The noise generated in the studio through vintage amplifiers has a live and
dangerous feel
to it. The acoustic opener, “Done Got Old,” does not prepare the listener
for the colossal
aural assault of “Baby, Please Don’t Leave Me.” Fading in on a percussion
track, Guy’s
guitar hits its cat-strangling best and never looks back, while the voice sounds
energized,
vital, and wholly contemporary. Through the 12-minute “I Got to Try It,
Girl” to the closing
Guy composition “It’s a Jungle Out There,” Sweet Tea has all the
hallmarks of a classic
blues album, mixed with a twist of the new. Grammy nominated Sweet Tea is now
finally
available on vinyl for the first time. This 2LP gatefold package includes an
insert.