When I Left Home

Buddy Guy is one of the last living links to the Chicago blues scene of the 1950s and 1960s, and When I Left Home is his memoir, written with David Ritz. Guy grew up sharecropping in Louisiana, moved to Chicago in 1957, and spent the next decade playing alongside Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and the rest of the Chess Records crowd.

The book is built from long conversations. Guy’s voice comes through clearly. He talks about the racial reality of the period in plain terms, about the cheap deals he was given, about what it was like to influence rock guitarists like Hendrix and Clapton without seeing real recognition until much later.

The later chapters cover his eventual breakthrough into wider recognition starting in the late 1980s.

For readers interested in Chicago blues, in the working-musician life, or in Black American history more broadly, this is essential. Pair it with the Chess Records documentaries.