Two generations. Two legendary bluemen. Buddy Guy and John Mayer undoubtedly dropped one of the greatest Farm Aid performances in the long history of the event with this smoking fretboard duel on “What Kind of Woman Is This.” Fans could not miss the symbolism of the blues pioneer Buddy passing the torch to the next gen of blues talent. As one top commenter said, “I love how John is every blues king’s apprentice.” Buddy began with a smoky lead vocal, while he and John traded licks in between the vocal melodies.
If you know anything about John Mayer, then you probably won’t be surprised about which part of the 6.6 million view performance was the most replayed by fans. When John took his first solo at 1:48, viewers just couldn’t stop coming back to hear his fiery licks. The Music Man readers may note that Buddy knew that John was gonna absolutely cook before he even started the solo, as the older bluesman had the cheekiest grin on his face before he shouted out to John to kick off the solo.
When Farm Aid uploaded the Buddy and John jam to YouTube, it became one of the most-streamed videos in the history of the event. Viewers loved to see the collab, and added comments such as “John’s in the zone. Almost brought tears to my eyes” and “John Mayer has played with BB King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton among others. If Jimi or SRV were alive today, he would’ve played with them too.”
John Mayer can always be relied upon to bring his A-game whenever he plays lead for another hitmaker. Another of the Atlanta star’s most memorable cuts is his collab with Sheryl Crow on “My Favourite Mistake.” While John is best known for fronting his own band, you can tell he totally loves stepping back from the mic and just focusing on tearing up the fretboard. On this number, he closes out the song with a classy, melodic solo that has plenty of tasty licks.
Buddy Guy issued “What Kind of Woman Is This” on September 17, 2005, as the third track from his 13th studio album Bring ‘Em In. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that the song was the only original tune that the Louisiana guitarist contributed to the album, with the other 12 songs on the album being covers.