In ’Sinners’ and his music, Buddy Guy is keeping the blues alive. It hasn’t been easy

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NEW YORK — 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.”

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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