In 'Sinners' and his music, Buddy Guy is keeping the blues alive. It
hasn't been easy
[July 31, 2025]
By MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — For Buddy Guy — a stalwart and staunch defender of the
blues — there's nothing more important than keeping his chosen genre at
the forefront of conversation. It comes naturally: Guy is one of
America's greatest guitar players, a singular artist with a thick roster
of A-list super fans — Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Gary Clark Jr. among
them.
The list also includes innovative writer and director Ryan Coogler, who
tapped Guy for his critically acclaimed film “Sinners” earlier this
year, and artists like Peter Frampton and the Eagles' Joe Walsh, who
feature on his new album “Ain't Done with the Blues.” It releases
Wednesday, on Guy's 89th birthday.
For the eight-time Grammy Award-winning musician, those recognitions
aren't priority. The longevity of the music that made his life is his
primary concern. “Like I promised B.B. King, Muddy Waters and all of
them,” he tells The Associated Press over the phone, “I do the best I
can to keep the blues alive.”
He's concerned that radio stations no longer play the blues, and that
the genre might miss out on connecting with younger listeners. It's one
of the reasons “Ain't Done with the Blues” is a strong collection of
classics that run the risk of being forgotten — like on the album closer
“Talk to Your Daughter,” a rendition of the J.B. Lenoir tune.
In Guy's performance, there's an undeniable universality. “Blues is
based on everyday life,” he says. “A good time or a bad time.”
Or, another way Guy explains it: “Music is like a bowl of real good
gumbo. They got all kinds of meat in there. You got chicken in there,
you got sausage in there. You got a seafood in it. ... When we play
music, we put everything in there.”
It's resonating. In its 2025 midyear report, Luminate, an industry data
and analytics company, found that U.S. on-demand audio streams of blues
music has climbed this year due to the success of “Sinners.”
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Buddy Guy poses for a portrait at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago on
Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Jaime Marconette, Luminate’s vice president of music insights and
industry relations, describes the current moment as a “resurgence of the
blues,” following “Sinners.”
“Several artists featured on the film’s soundtrack, which includes works
from real-life blues, folk and country musicians, saw spikes the week of
the film’s theatrical release,” he explains. “And they’re all enjoying a
sustained rise in listenership even two-plus months following release.”
Guy has noticed the shift, too. “I walk in the grocery store or the
drugstore and people recognize me. ‘Man, you know, I heard that
’Sinners' music, man. Man, it sounds good,'” he says. “They ain’t never
gonna come in and say, ‘I heard it on the radio.’”
That's part of the reason why Guy decided to participate in the movie in
the first place. “I hope this will give the blues a boost, because my
worry right now is, like I said, a young person don’t know how good a
gumbo is — you’ve got to taste it.”
For now, he's excited to see how people respond to his new album, “Ain't
Done with the Blues” — but he's not listening to it.
“I listen to everything but Buddy Guy,” he says. “I already know Buddy
Guy. I can't learn anything from that.”
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