OTTAWA -- That Buddy Guy's quite a tease.

Just as the veteran Chicago bluesman was serving up spoonful after spoonful of electrifying guitar licks at last night's Ottawa Bluesfest closer, he'd suddenly cut short the supply.

"If y'all don't like this blues, I know some others," Guy told the good people crowded along the muddy flatland of the Lebreton Flats delta. "You don't know what I'm gonna come up with next."

Quitely launching into Muddy Waters' Hoochie Coochie Man, Guy demonstrated a fine knack for mimicking Waters' style while making it his very own.

"Y'all don't like that either? There's a good friend of mine ... now I know shoes like that cannot be filled, but I can do a little John Lee Hooker for ya," Guy said, referring to his fill-in spot on the Bluesfest roster. (Illness forced Hooker to pull out). A soft passage later gave way to Boom Boom.

Guy, weeks away from turning 64, didn't need to acknowledge his guitar mastery of other guitar heroes such as the late Waters or Stevie Ray Vaughan and the very-much-alive Hooker and Eric Clapton.

"I'm gonna do just a little bit (of Clapton), so that you don't wake up the next morning and read your paper saying he forgot the song, 'cause I didn't forget," he stressed before sampling Cream's Strange Brew.

By doing so, it seemed he was paying his respects to his fellow blues guitarists, rather than short-changing the worth of his own material.

And if there was any doubt of his abilities, they were broken the moment the five-time Grammy winner and his well-oiled five-piece machine propelled into Got My Mojo Working early in the 85-minute set, followed by an extended Five Long Years, with Guy walking deep into the centre aisle to demonstrate his loud-cum-soft-cum-loud chops.

SHARP VOCALS

In fact, doubt shouldn't even be in anyone's vocabulary, what with his sharp vocals working the crowd into a frenzy with Mustang Sally, Damn Right I Got the Blues and a tender Feels Like Rain.

The latter proved fitting on two counts. One, it rained all afternoon. And second, Guy's last visit to the capital was, in his words, "five years, maybe longer. But every I come here it ... [insert song title here]."

Man, that Guy's a tease. Wonder if he'll do the same to B.B. King when they pair up for a tour in September?

JAM! Rating: 4.5 out of 5