This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
How do you like your blues? Streetwise and slick like the 12-bar sounds of Chicago? Or rough and ragged like the gutbucket grooves of the Delta? Either way, Buddy Guy’s Sweet Tea will suit your taste.
On this tremendous effort, the Chi-town guitar slinger pays a visit to the backwoods of Mississippi, the old stomping grounds of veteran bluesmen like T-Model Ford, Robert Cage, Cedell Davis and the late Junior Kimbrough. Guy respectfully covers songs by all of them here, even enlisting T-Model’s drummer Spam to lend his authentic shambling drums to some cuts. And whether on hypnotic acoustic dirges like Done Got Old or searing electric laments like Baby Please Don’t Leave Me or lumpy stompers like Look What All You Got, he proves he could hold his own in any juke joint any night of the week. A flawless, furiously funky amalagam of Chicago soul and Delta grit, this irresistible offering is Guy’s best work in a decade — and the best major-label blues album so far this year.
