On the road again yesterday...actually in the air once more. A short flight up to big D! That's Dallas to you non-Texans y'all! Pretty darn excited about this one as I had a photo shoot for Fender guitars with the legendary man of the blues Mr. Buddy Guy.

Anyone with half an ounce of musical taste will know the name Buddy Guy, the man is directly responsible for influencing the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page into wanting to play guitar... Quite an influence eh?

I'm met at the House of Blues in Dallas by Buddy's tech Gilbert who warmly greets me and gets me set up with the necessary passes. No Nazis working at this House of Blues, the staff were nice and accommodating. Gilbert tells me that Buddy is on the other side of a bout of laryngitis and isn't feeling that great but he still wants to do the shoot.

I set up some lights backstage in Mr. Guys dressing room, fire off a few test shots and have Gilbert be my guinea pig for a short time to get things looking right and a bit later Mr. Guy quietly rolls in backstage dressed in a white shirt with black polka dots which contrast perfectly with his Black Fender with white polka dots. I introduce myself and we get started on this quick shoot. He's such a professional, smiled constantly as we chatted about him working with the Rolling Stones on the Scorsese movie "Shine A Light". I had read somewhere that when he performed with them that he really gave them a run for their money. When I mentioned that he laughed out loud and said that they've got plenty of money and weren't worried! HA!

Got done with the shoot and thanked him for his time and headed to the stage where despite being 72 years young Buddy Guy gave 200% in a performance that you'd have thought was coming from someone half his age. There aren't many living legends left in music these days, let alone in the blues... Buddy Guy and BB King are the only ones I can think of. It's not often that I'm impressed by anyone these days but what I saw onstage that night was truly legendary. If you get a chance to see Buddy play, don't think twice about it...trust me.

ASH