I went to see blues legend Buddy Guy in Greensburg last night. It is his farewell tour (he’s 87 years old) so I figured it was a must-see show. And, it was! The opener, King Solomon Hicks, was pretty great, too, but he didn’t play with a full band–it was just him and a bass player. Pittsburgh legend Norman Nardini joined him for a song or two, which was cool.
There was one weird thing at the end of the show. During the last song, he called up some kid from the audience to play (he said something about meeting the kid’s grandparents the night before at dinner). The kid had his guitar with him and they set him up to play with the band. I thought I was going to get to see a child prodigy play, which would have been awesome. Instead, the kid sounded like he’d never picked up a guitar before. He played a couple of random notes on his untuned guitar and then Buddy Guy said, “let’s give him a hand”. It was so awkward. I don’t know if he choked or if his grandparents seriously underestimated his abilities. Or if the intent was not for him to play at all, and simply meet Buddy Guy. Hopefully, that won’t deter him from playing in the future. He still has time to be a child prodigy. In 15 years, I hope to hear a story about some new blues wizard who once played on stage with Buddy Guy when he was 10.