Winner of the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album, Buddy Guy’s 2025 record, Ain’t Done with the Blues, can be accepted as a fact. As Guy enters his ninth decade on this earth, he has illustrated that he’s not even close to being done; providing us with another record to share and giving his fans more shows to see.

Recorded and written with collaborator Tom Hambridge in Nashvile, New Orleans, and Hollywood, Guy welcomes a stellar band made up of Tom Hambridge (drums), Tal Wilkenfeld and Glenn Worf (bass), Rob McNelly (guitar), Kevin McKendree and Chuck Leavell (Keyboards), and Max Abrams and Steve Patrick on horns. Additionally, several well-known friends and musicians join with the group including Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Joe Walsh, Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, and The Blind Boys of Alabama.

The record covers all the corners of Guy’s storied career ranging from contemporary blues to Chicago blues, shuffles and gutbucket grooves. There is a wonderful diversity of the form that covers his blues-rock excursions and the traditional classical influences he helped to pioneer. The album opens with an acoustic snippet called “Hooker Thing,” a traditional blues inspired by John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen,” that Guy recalls as the first thing that he ever learned to play.

“Been There Done That,” gets things going and is a funky travelogue where Guy narrates his life from the Southern plantations and juke joints to performing for Presidents. Chuck Leavell lends his organic aptitude on the blacks and whites while Guy provides his first beautifully pinched off solo of the record.

“Chase the Blues Away,” is a straight boogie-woogie blues where Guy name checks his laundry list of the bluesmen who keep him going including Jimmy Reed and B.B. King. “Where U At,” follows and features a hearty dollop of creole over funky horn blasts and wah-wah’d guitars with Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram joining in on the festivities.

“Blues on Top,” is just that, with Guy’s recognizable Stratocaster weighting down a heavy traditional 12 bar. “I Got Sumpin for You,” is a cover of Guitar Slim’s 1955 cut that grooves with a hard anticipation of what Guy may have waiting for his baby. The guitar is quintessential Guy with a slightly overdriven tone that both soothes and threatens.

The next three aongs feature Joe Walsh, Joe Bonamassa, and Peter Frampton respectively. The Mannish Boy styled start and stop of “How Blues Is That” contains Walsh’s biting tone, while “Dry Stick,” may be the best song on the record, with venerable Guy vocals and sweetly coated Bonamassa riffing. Frampton’s notable contributions are on strings and vocals for the autobiographical windy city chug a lug of “It Keeps Me Young.”

Following the sweet piano soul of “Love on a Budget,” Guy welcomes the Blind Boys of Alabama for the hard driving “Jesus Loves the Sinner,” a song that starts in the congregation and moves to the street through its gritty central lick that is softened by the gospel call and response. A fantastic collaboration and a song that sums up the record through its touching of several poles of blues influence.

“Upside Down,” keep the groove greasy with Guy coming to terms with what the hell is going on with the world today and sets up the second Delta blues flavored track of the LP with the sparse “One from Lightning,” an intimate tribute to Lightning Hopkins and the spectral and always omnipresent gypsy woman.

“I Don’t Forget,” is the atmospheric heart of the record, a modern-day manifesto of the hardships and struggle Guy has witnessed in his 90 years. The song sounds like a field holler, yet is dressed in the swirling elements of several shades of blues. Guy’s solo is an electrified reminder of he recalls before returning to the melancholy arrangement.

An ass-shaking reading of Earl King’s “Trick Bag,” is full of rhythmic surprises and hits a sultry shuffle for the chorus. Guy sings this one with the virility of a young man.

The following “Swamp Poker,” deals out a hand that swats at crawdads with one hand and keeps the reptiles at bay with another while balanced on a percussive groove that settles into the riverside to collect winnings. A surprising and earnest reading of the rock and roll standard “Send Me Some Loving,” is the penultimate song on the record and is highlighted by a short Guy guitar solo that absolutely sings.

The record then closes with JB Lenoir’s “Talk to Your Daughter,” a swinging acoustic based cut that reminds the listener that the blues isn’t light, and it sure ain’t funny and closes the record with a stern warning that Mama better keep an eye with how her kin is treating her man.

This record may be the last of Guy’s studio recordings, or it could signal the first in yet another reinvention for the bluesman who never stops. His is a formative voice that continues to influence and inspire yet doesn’t rest on its historic laurels. With blues roots sunk deep into the muck earth of history, Guy continues to yield the fruits of his labor and contribute to those who will use the blues as a sturdy foundation to learn about the history of American music.

One thing is for certain, Guy ain’t done with the blues yet, or sipping on Cognac, and won’t be, until he determines that that time has arrived.