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Field Trip

Buddy Guy at 90

Buddy's Got the Blues — Thursday, October 1, 2026 — Radio City Music Hall, New York City

A living legend turns 90, and the room fills with the people he shaped. This is not a festival — it's a one-night blues summit, Buddy Guy surrounded by Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Billy Gibbons, and a dozen more. Steve Jordan runs the band. We're going.

The night

Date
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Venue
Radio City Music Hall, New York City
The occasion
Buddy Guy at 90 — the last of the first-generation Chicago blues giants, still playing.
Musical director
Steve Jordan
Why we're here
A once-in-a-lifetime bill honoring the source the whole rock and metal family tree grows out of.

Who's joining him

The marquee
  • Buddy GuyThe man of the hour
  • Eric Clapton
  • John Mayer
Blues heavyweights
  • Joe Bonamassa
  • Gary Clark Jr.
  • Derek Trucks
  • Susan Tedeschi
  • Billy F GibbonsZZ Top
  • Jimmie Vaughan
  • Robert Cray
  • Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Also on the bill
  • Jon Batiste
  • Aloe Blacc
  • Shemekia Copeland
  • Samantha Fish
  • Eric Gales
  • Ivan Neville
  • Robert Randolph
  • Bobby Rush
  • Isaiah Sharkey
  • Ally Venable
  • Kim Wilson
  • Willie Weeks

Lineup confirmed at announcement; more special guests expected before the show.

Why this is a field trip

  • Buddy Guy is the bridge. Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf handed it to him; he handed it to Clapton, Hendrix, Vaughan, and everyone who plugged a Strat into a loud amp after. The line from Chicago blues to rock to metal runs straight through this man.
  • This is the lineage argument made in one room, in one night: the source and the artists he built, together. That's the story The Music Cities tells about every scene — where the sound comes from, and who carries it forward.
  • A 90-year-old originator still on stage, surrounded by the generations he made possible. You do not get many more of these.

Notes

  • Rough draft. Set details and any Music Cities coverage plan fill in here as the date gets closer.
  • Produced by Blackbird Presents. Radio City Music Hall, one night only.