*** Buddy Guy

HEAVY LOVE

(Silvertone)

It's been a while since Buddy Guy got Stone Crazy on us, but you can hardly blame him for playing it safe these days. Four decades into his career, one of the world's greatest guitarists -- blues or otherwise -- is still trying to find the formula that'll get him over to an audience that finally wised up to Bonnie Raitt and made Eric Clapton a multi-millionaire. So on Buddy's recent records, we've had to endure a procession of "special guest star" axmen like Clapton, Jeff Beck, and now blue-eyed teenage phenom Jonny Lang, who gets trotted out to duet with the Chicago-bred master on "Midnight Train" -- a good tune that would have been better without Lang's redundant support. I've yet to figure out why anyone would buy a Buddy Guy album to listen to another guitarist. Still, this is his best in ages. The setting is stripped to warm, soulful essentials that allow Guy's guitar to cry, cavort, and ruminate on losing love, finding redemption, and nursing the hangover in between. And the star cameos are, I'm happy to say, kept to a minimum.

-- Jonathan Perry