JOE BONAMASSA

Driving Towards The Daylight

Continuing from where Dust Bowl left off, Bonamassa explores a rootsy rock’n'blues feel with five slick originals and some gutsy covers that push things forward. We particularly like the album’s soulful title track, the rocked-up versions of Robert Johnson’s Stones In Me Passway and Howlin‘ Wolfs Who’s Been Talkin’ and the Hammond-heavy take of Tom Waits’ New Coat Of Paint. 15 years on and this is one of his Best

Review by: www.humanrocks.net

I saw Joe in small venue..in Fresno, CA. Thursday.  April 19, 2012.

Joe Bonamassa rolled into the Sayoran Theater in Fresno last night with a tight kick ass 4 piece band and played before a sold out crowd of 2,000. Band was keyboards..hammond B3 with leslie…bass..killer power drummer and Joe who had 3 big Marshall stacks powering his variety of axes that kept his guitar tech busy all night changing out guitars. He was light on the blues with only a couple of tracks and lots of heavy rock. Many of his songs broke down into slow tight jams that let Joe show his taste and killer hot licks. He played tracks from Dust Bowl, Black Country and Slo Gin and a smokin cover of ZZ tops Just Got Paid. Mercy. He did a killer acoustic song..by himself on stage…track lasted 10 minutes would have made Lindsay Buckingham’s jaw drop..Just killer stuff. Bonamassa is a guitar virtuoso, can play fricking anything and this power group he brought in literally blew the roof off the Theater in Fresno. He left with the crowd standing and wanting more. If you like heavy power music and tasty chops and licks Joe B will not disappoint. He IS the hottest thing going in the guitar world right now.

make sure to check out my podcast..human’s bluesfest

http://www.humanrocks.net/blog/joe_bonamassa_reviewlive_in_fresno/

POSTED By: Howittzer

ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill took the stage to speak about their fellow Texas bluesman, with Gibbons saying that his unique style of guitar playing earned him the nickname “The Texas Cannonball.”

King’s daughter Wanda accepted, giving a speech that torpedoed any cynicism one might have about the induction ceremony: it clearly meant a lot to her to have her father finally recognized by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She related a story about listening to a conversation between her father and a young Stevie Ray Vaughan, where King told the up-and-coming guitarist “You can’t get to rock and roll unless you know the blues!” It’s a lesson that clearly resonated with many rock legends, including those who were influenced by him, such as Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Duane Allman.

After Ms. King’s speech, Gibbons and Hill hit the stage with blues rocker Joe Bonamassa and Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks. The all-star lineup played “Hideaway” (a song that Clapton covered while he was in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) and “Goin’ Down” (which Beck has covered). As Rock Hall inductees get younger and younger, it was a solid reminder that rock and roll’s roots have always been in the blues.

– Brian Ives, CBS Local

At the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, attention will most likely focus on the big-name groups being honored, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beastie Boys and The Small Faces. But many of rock’s greatest guitarists — including Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana and Stevie Ray Vaughan — have acknowledged a large debt to the late blues great Freddie King, who is being inducted to the hall this year for his early influence on rock music.

Among the “Three Kings” of electric blues — along with B.B. and Albert (no relation) — Freddie King is the last to be inducted into the rock hall. But in some ways, his late induction mirrors his career. Freddie is probably the least well-known of the Kings, but he has arguably had the most influence on rock guitarists.

Born and raised in Texas, Freddie King learned guitar basics from his mother and uncle. At first, he soaked up acoustic blues and Texas country, but in late 1949, at the age of 15, he moved to Chicago with his family. It was there that King learned from such electric Chicago blues greats as Jimmie Rodgers and Muddy Waters and eventually came up with his signature sound.

King’s blues style was fluid, but with biting power that was arguably more forceful than that of many other bluesmen of his day (with the notable exception of living legend Buddy Guy). King used thumb and finger picks and would just dig into his Gibson 355 — hung precariously over just his right shoulder — creating what are now classic, deeply influential and riveting solos.

King’s versions of blues classics such as “Key to the Highway,” “I’m Tore Down” and “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” have become part of the blues-rock pantheon.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Freddie and other original bluesmen for, basically, the songbook they gave us,” blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa says. “Freddie was more of a rock guitar player. Freddie always had a dry, immediate sound.”

While B.B. and Albert King are known for their exquisite, minimalist solos with sinewy bends and telltale vibrato, Freddie King was a little more rock ‘n’ roll.

“I can easily identify his sound and his style,” Bonamassa says. “The attack and the intensity — you can tell who he is in three notes, you know?”

Fittingly, Bonamassa will help posthumously induct King Saturday with another member of the younger generation of blues-rock virtuoso guitarists: Derek Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band. They’ll be joined by Freddie King’s fellow Texans Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top for a rock hall jam in Freddie’s honor. Wanda King, his eldest daughter, will represent the family at the induction.

“Freddie King set the standard of a black bluesman doing rock blues,” Wanda King says. “Clapton, [John] Mayall, Jeff Beck, Warren Haynes — the list goes on and on. Many of these guys really jump-started their careers off of my father’s music. He definitely has a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

King’s classic instrumental “Hide Away” became a gateway tune for many guitar players: You had to show your chops with a version of “Hide Away.” Named after a Chicago bar and, King admitted, stolen in part from a Hound Dog Taylor tune, “Hide Away” became King’s trademark song in 1961. That year, he had an incredible series of six hits in the R&B Top 30 and three Top 10 hits.

Like many musicians and fans, Bonamassa came to Freddie King via the British Invasion guitar greats Clapton, Beck and Jimmy Page, who reignited interest in American blues. He then made his way to King’s later recordings on Leon Russell‘s legendary Shelter label and got hooked on the sound.

“My first introduction to ‘Hide Away’ was on the John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers album with Eric Clapton,” Bonamassa says. “Same thing with ‘Please Accept My Love’ and ‘Going Down.’ It’s part of the playbook, the songbook we all use.”

King died in 1976 at just 42. Constant touring — immortalized in the Grand Funk Railroad line, ‘Up all night with Freddie King / Man I gotta tell you, poker’s his thing’ — as well as a poor diet (Bloody Marys were reputedly a favorite meal) hammered his health.

“He left us way too soon, but his legend will live forever,” Wanda King says. “Some people are put here for one thing and then move on.”

Wanda King says she’s heartened by the thought that kids today know you have to go through Freddie if you want to get to blues-rock. She says she gets emails all the time from around the world.

“I read one from a 14-year-old from Brazil, and he just got his first Freddie King CD and his first guitar. That’s awesome,” she says. “Young kids are into Freddie King if they are into the guitar.”

Maybe the next blues-rock great is practicing those pentatonic blues scales right now in Brazil, or Bratislava, or Baltimore — up all night with Freddie King.

Joe Bonamassa’s Beacon Theatre Live From New York has reached the top of the DVD Charts world wide. Beacon Theatre was released in March of 2012 and features special guests Paul Rodgers, Beth Hart and John Hiatt. Produced by Kevin Shirely this is Bonamassa’s 5th DVD in his 21 year history.

#3 – Billboard DVD Chart

#1-Holland

#3-UK Chart

Joe Bonamassa @ Capital FM Arena, Nottingham – 2nd April 2012

Review by Harry Paterson and Photos by Laura Patterson

I spoke to God on Monday night. He was busking outside the Arena in Nottingham. Riffing away on an old beat-up acoustic and He was pretty good, too. Mind you, He’s been around forever, right? Plenty of practice hours.

So, anyway, the auld lad’s whipping up a storm. Long white beard gently swaying in the breeze, ancient gnarled fingers flashing across the frets so I stopped to listen, while I had me my last pre-show smoke. He cocked a baleful eye in my direction.

“I suppose you’re here for the gig, right?”

I allowed that, yes; I was here for the gig, actually. He sniffed disdainfully and then started talking. Soon He’d worked Himself up into quite a state. Ranting about the great gigs he’d played, the hep cats he’d jammed with, up there in the clouds. Jimi Hendrix, Muddy, Albert King although Robert Johnson, it transpired, was an eternal pain in the Divine ass. “Fucker went with the opposition, didn’t he?” He spat venomously. “Crafty bastard and his fucking crossroads. What a stroke!”

On and on He raved and raged and bitched and moaned until, slowly, disturbingly, the source of His malfunction became apparent. The poor auld sod was unhinged, delusional. Certifiably insane, in fact. He’d only got a Bonamassa Complex! Can you believe that shit?

God thinks he’s Joe Bonamassa.

For the Marxists among this evening’s audience, at least a rudimentary understanding of dialectical materialism should be a given. The concept, therefore, of two contradictory and opposing conditions existing simultaneously in space and time should present no difficulty and provide something of a clue regarding the brilliance, for there is no other word, of tonight’s events. Not the sterile tightness of over-rehearsed professional mechanics but, instead, the flawless exposition of masters communicating on a level few could attain.

At the same time, because blues is nothing if not an improvisational art, the quartet demonstrated an innate sense and an instinctive understanding of both the music and each other so that off-the-cuff explorations were executed in a manner that seemed as natural as breathing. Tight but loose, Zep-heads might say.

From the mesmerising slow-burn of opener ‘Slow Train’ to the extended encore jam, nearly two-and-half hours later, Bonamassa and his side-men transcended the blues, rock ‘n’ roll, even music itself, and elevated proceedings to nothing less than art of the most sublime kind.

The man himself displayed genius of an almost frightening nature. That his guitar playing was among the greatest many here tonight will ever see seemed almost perfunctory when set against the sheer commitment and physical passion of his performance.

The guitar tech, busier possibly, than the star himself, handed over a bewildering array of instruments, among them such disparate tools as rockabilly-style monstrosities with Bigsby trems to Gibson Firebirds and gold-topped Les Pauls. All of them possessing one vital quality in common; tone. Of course, that sound stemmed from only one place; the very soul of Joe Bonamassa and poured out through fingertips by sheer force of will and emotional commitment alone.

There is something of a special relationship between Nottingham and Joe Bonamassa, to which he alluded as he recounted his debut at The Running Horse, some eight years ago, through to the Rescue Rooms, The Royal Concert Hall and, finally, eight years later, to the Arena. Possibly something of that bond was responsible for the tour de force with which we were gifted.

‘The Ballad of John Henry’, was almost too much to bear, such was its intensity and alongside the self-penned greats, ‘Dust Bowl’ ‘Last Kiss’ and ‘Django’ seamlessly nestled the work of other giants of the form; ‘Sloe Gin’ ‘Who’s Been Talking’ and ‘Blues Deluxe’, the range of expression best described as universal. Indeed, all life was here; sadness, joy, regret and celebration and we were privileged to witness a truly unique talent, an undisputed giant of 21^st century music, at the height of his astonishing powers.

http://www.themidlandsrocks.com/joe-bonamassa-capital-fm-arena-nottingham-2nd-april-2012/#.T3toT3LYGPO

Written by: Simon Copeland

Apparently, the cabbie taking Joe Bonamassa to Friday’s show said to him, “Aren’t you the Albert Hall guy?” Quite a compliment for a young turk blues guitarist to supplant Eric Clapton as the name associated with gigs there. But maybe it’s time to start calling Bonamassa, 34, the “Brighton Centre bloke” because I doubt the venue has seen an audience cheer a show so ecstatically.

Kicking off with the riff powerhouse of Slow Train, Bonamassa and his three-man band didn’t let up for two hours of astonishing playing. They pulled off the difficult trick of making the arena seem like an intimate club. Bonamassa’s act is unashamedly retro, paying tribute to the classic rock of Cream, Free and axemen Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher. This is a man who sees nothing Spinal Tap in having three- Yes, three- Marshall stacks on stage, or playing a double-neck guitar.

Yet Bonamassa’s jaw-dropping technique sidesteps cliché while still being faithful to the tradition. Highlights included a tender reading of Gary Moore’s Midnight Blues, a romping Young Man Blues (best known as a Who cover) and ZZ Top’s Just Got Paid, which nodded to Led Zep’s Dazed and Confused. The first encore Leonard Cohen’s Bird On A Wire, had the audience silent in wonder. The covers highlight a minor niggle, though – his own material isn’t quite as top-notch as the classics he loves. Still, all that matters is that in Bonamassa’s hands, the music of the past has a great future.

A little bit about Royal Albert Hall: Award-winning blues rock star, guitar hero and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa s new release, Joe Bonamassa Live From The Royal Albert Hall, a 2-DVD live set, just made it s debut at #6 on Billboard Magazine s Top Music DVD Chart and #10 on the Top Blues Album Chart. The film, released on October 6 by Bonamassa s record company J&R Adventures, captures the intensity and excitement of the May 2009 show that marked Bonamassa s headlining debut at arguably the most prestigious concert venue in the world. May 4, 2009 was a day 20 years in the making, says Bonamassa. I have never been so honored in my life. It was truly larger than the sum of its parts. Click here to Buy Joe Bonamassa Live From Royal Albert Hall.

Blues Revue Interviews Joe:

BluesWax Sittin’ In with

Joe Bonamassa

By Bob Gersztyn

Joe Bonamassa is one of the hottest blues-rock guitarists and singer-songwriters on the scene today. Since his debut in 2000 Bonamassa has come a long way, through relentless touring and by releasing 17 albums. As a child prodigy he was opening shows for B.B. King at the age of 12 and has recently graced the covers of Guitar Player and Blues Revue as the leading Generation X blues axe man of the 21st century. Billboard magazine called him the #1 Blues Artist of 2010 and in 2011 he released Dust Bowl, which was recorded in Santorini, Greece. BluesWax Contributing Editor Bob Gersztyn caught up with Joe between gigs during his final U.S. appearances, prior to the holidays and a tour of Europe during the first half of 2012. They talked about the new album and some of the influences that have impacted Joe thus far.

Bob Gersztyn for BluesWax: How did you decide on the mix of songs that you used for Dust Bowl?

Joe Bonamassa: On a lot of these things you start out with a concept, and then sometimes you kind of bail on them as the record kind of shapes up and the thing is more so than anything we had a chance to record with Vince Gill and John Hiatt and I think some of the songs took shape because of that opportunity. There is no master plan with a chalkboard room where you decide these concepts. It’s a weird thing when all of a sudden in the context of a “blues album,” and it’s a pretty liberal use of the term “blues,” it’s not a straight-ahead blues record by any means. There’s Beth Hart, John Hiatt, Vince Gill, and Glen Hughes on the same record, but it all seems to kind of work, as we kept going, finding songs, or I would write something, and it just kind of went from there.

BW: “Tennessee Plates” is a John Hiatt [Dave Porter] composition and it’s not the first time you’ve covered John Hiatt [“I Know A Place” on Black Rock]), what is it that you like about his songs?

JB: There’s something about the lyrics that he writes that are really deep. He’s like the ultimate “I wish I thought of that,” and then you are saying “Wow! What a great song, what a great concept, what a great lyric, man I wish that I had thought of that.”John’s a super nice guy and he just came to the Beacon Theater. We did two nights at the Beacon Theater, and we recorded it, in New York. We invited three guests to come and one was John, and the other was Beth Hart and then the great Paul Rogers. So at the end John came out and we did “I Know A Place” from Black Rock, and then he did one of his new songs, from his new record with the four of us. It’s called “Down And Around My Place.” If you listen to the lyrics of it, it’s like poetry, it’s on the level of like Leonard Cohen, because it’s just poetry set to music, and it’s wonderful. I have an affinity for John Hiatt songs, and I’m not the only one, his stuff has been by everybody, and rightfully so, because it’s just a wonderful wealth of American music. John is great, he’s a total legend and a total star, and I was really honored to work with him on the album and DVD.

BW: Yeah, John really is a poet. I’ve seen him perform a couple of times. He was at the Waterfront Blues Festival a few years ago with the North Mississippi All Stars backing him up.

JB: John is like a troubadour. He could be with the North Mississippi All Stars or have his own killer band, or does acoustic shows with Lyle Lovett. It’s just like himself and Lyle Lovett, and everything works. It just all works.

BW: Another question I had was about train imagery in songs. The first song on Dust Bowl is one. Why are trains in the imagery of so many songs? From “500 Miles” and “Casey Jones” to Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming and a plethora of other blues and folk songs?

JB: To put it in the context of our world, Kevin [Shirley] came in one day, when we were in the studio and he said, “You know, Joe, you need a song about a train, all blues artists have songs about trains. So pick a key and let’s just start a song, a vamp, but we’ll start it like a freight train would start, so slow, and then slowly get going.” And that’s how the whole thing started and, lyrically, I put the lyrics on afterwards. This may sound cliché but I just kind of like wanted to write my train song. It was more kind of like tongue and cheek. “You call yourself blues, Bonamassa, but you don’t have a song about a train. No self-respecting blues man would play the blues without having a song about a train, and it’s a real star live, it comes off like the Jeff Beck Group, and that’s what it kind of sounds like to me, early Jeff Beck group stuff, and that’s cool. It think that it’s a really cool song and I knew as soon as it went down in the studio in one take that it was a real star, and we’ll be playing this live, until nobody wants to come see me anymore.

BW: And then the next song, “Dust Bowl,” continues with that chugging train sound.

JB: That was like the spaghetti western. So it was a one, two punch where we had to check off two of the things, a spaghetti western and a song about a train. It was little Duane Eddy kind of stuff.

BW: The title Dust Bowl immediately brought to my mind John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Have you ever read it?

JB: That was kind of the whole concept of it. It was the Steinbeck reference of it and the other thing was, how sometimes you get into your own little world and you feel like you’re in this pressure cooker where there is a constant tornado. I was feeling that way when I was writing, because I was really under the gun to write and produce some stuff, and I looked outside the windows of the studio and it was like a dust storm, like the wind had kicked up, because it was very arid, where we were recording in Santorini, Greece, and it was a dust bowl.

BW: While you were in Greece did you visit Athens and the Parthenon?

JB: Santorini is an island about an hour flight off the coast of Greece, but I’ve played in Athens several times and it’s a fantastic gig and we had really great fans there, just smoking. So that was cool, but I have not seen the Parthenon, other than flying over it when we were arriving. I really wanted to, but on show dates you’re really under the gun. But Santorini is where the lost city of Atlantis is supposed to have been before the volcano took it out.

BW: That’s even better than the Parthenon. Your popularity and that of the blues, in Greece and other parts of the world, is phenomenal. I mean there are blues bands in Poland and Australia and it’s crazy the way it’s spread around the world.

JB: It really is a universal language, because when you start a slow blues song in any country in the world, people cheer. You know what I mean? It’s such a universal language. It’s just one of those things where you just go, my god, you know? We do a song called “Blues Deluxe” and I can start that in Moscow, and they go, “Uh, cool,” or you can start it in Phoenix, which is where I’m at now, and they go “Oh, cool.” It’s like the difference in climates and cultures are from the American Southwest to the capitol of Russia, and for some reason that kind of music speaks to everybody on some kind of level, and it’s no different when you play Greece or Turkey or Israel or Australia or India. It’s that kind of thing. It’s a very cool thing overall.

BW: It is amazing the way that blues has traveled around the world. I met someone who had a blues band in Paris a few years ago. With the worldwide impact that the blues has had, how would you describe what the blues is to a musical novice?

JB: Blues has a different definition to a lot of different people. I can tell you what my definition is it’s everything from Zeppelin to the late, great Hubert Sumlin. I just got a text before I called you. I guess Hubert died today or something.

BW: He did?

JB: It’s even on my website now. He was a sweetheart, too. I guess it was heart failure, but it’s now just starting to come out.

Read the Full Interview at http://bluesrevue.com/2012/03/the-ezine-joe-bonamassa-part-one-3-03-12/#