Buddy Guy's new album features a song cowritten by David Gogo

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      If you're a fan of the blues, you've gotta admire the connections David Gogo has made with the genre's legendary practitioners.

      It started back when he was just a kid, hanging out with Stevie Ray Vaughan, and continues to this day.

      Three months ago the Nanaimo blues-rocker scored the opening slot for B.B. King in his hometown, and shortly after wrote a nice little piece for Ear of Newt looking back on his relationship with the master from Mississippi.

      Then just yesterday Gogo announced in a tweet that a song he cowrote, "Never Gonna Change", was going to appear on the next album by Buddy Guy, one of the few bluesmen whose name you can mention in the same breath as Vaughan and King.

      Way to go Dave-O!

      Gogo cowrote the song with Tom Hambridge, producer of the new double album, which is titled Rhythm & Blues and scheduled for release July 30 on RCA Records. It's the followup to the Hambridge-helmed Living Proof album of 2010, which was Guy's highest charting album ever, and won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

      "I am fully stoked," tweeted Gogo yesterday. "A true geetar hero of mine!"

      As well as the input from Gogo--whose own new album, Come On Down, is out July 2 on Cordova Bay Records--Rhythm & Blues features studio collaborations with Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Gary Clark, Jr., Beth Hart, and Aerosmith members Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Brad Whitford.

      And now, just to get your weekend rolling on a bluesy note, here's a live clip of Gogo that seems to pay homage to all three of the above-mentioned guitar greats. He's using King's best-known tune ("The Thrill is Gone") as backdrop for some fierce Vaughan/Guy-style stringbending action, feedback to follow.

      I also like the way he throws in that tip of the hat to Albert King in the last minute when the riff from "Born Under a Bad Sign" rises up.

      There's that connection I was talkin' about.

      Comments

      3 Comments

      dave

      Jun 14, 2013 at 9:41pm

      Gogo in White Rock on Sat Jun 22 playing at Blue Frog Recording Studios. Great room, holds about 100. Seen him there before, be there again.

      johnny edgar

      Jun 15, 2013 at 8:03pm

      this is a big deal people!

      love the blues

      Jun 15, 2013 at 9:28pm

      but gogo makes me snooze ,
      to much white man shuffle and too much booze .
      Blues lost it's heart ,
      it forgot how it did start .
      Like jazz , it's become just sheets .
      why o why play them easy feets ,
      get out on the land , play that north African man .
      Don't play another 2/4 shuffle ,
      it ain't blues it just a hustle

      stick a fork in it it's over & done ,
      too bad son ,you ain't the one .
      Not even if mr. Guy says so , good man , but lost his way , I know it's sad to say .
      This kinds blues has lost its day ,
      a long long ways a way !!!