Personnel: Buddy Guy (vocals, guitar); Wayne Bennett (guitar); Donald Hankins, Aaron Corthen, Bobby Fields (saxophone); Otis Spann (piano); Jack Myers (bass); Lonny Taylor, Fred Below (drums).

A MAN AND THE BLUES, Buddy Guy's first solo album on Vanguard, ranks with B.B. King's LIVE AT THE REGAL as one of the touchstones of '60s blues. This is essential listening. Guy's guitar playing is a miracle of gracefulness and passion. His spare, liquid approach can be heard here at its uncluttered finest. Likewise, his vocals manage to marry some of Junior Wells' streetwise badass-ness (must've rubbed off after so many gigs together in the years leading up to this album) with Guy's own inimitable striving falsetto, clearly inspired by B.B. but definitely a thing of its own.

One could conceivably grouse that there's not a lot of difference between "Jam On A Monday Morning" and "Just Playing My Axe," but come now… are these excellent titles or what? Guy comes through with four slow blues. "Sweet Little Angel" and "Worry Worry" obviously owe a lot to LIVE AT THE REGAL, but "One Room Country Shack" and the title cut show the territory Guy is heading for on his own. All this and Otis Spann on piano, too. Oh--and no, Virginia, Stevie Ray did not invent the first blues version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb."