A year ago, we drooled a little over a power blues record by an ascending star on the blues scene, Joe Bonamassa. Since then The Ballad Of John Henry rocketed to the #1 position on Billboard’s Blues Albums charts, #103 on its Top 200, #35 Rock chart and #1 Heatseekers, in addition to seeing other chart action. Last month that CD was part of the “2009 Best of – Blues” on this site. Last October came a DVD of Bonamassa’s live, sold-out performance at England’s Royal Albert Hall earlier in the year. I just checked the current Blues Album chart and John Henry is still sitting at #4. But merely 13 months later, Bonamassa is poised to clutter up the top of that chart when Black Rock drops on March 23.
As I and others noted last year, The Ballad of John Henry was something of a breakthrough album for Bonamassa, one where I thought both his songwriting and singing had caught up to the level of his massive guitar chops. And if John Henry is the triumph, then Black Rock is the victory lap.
Joe B. continues flashing his trademark style: thick and heavy blues riffs, fervent Delta-drenched crooning, durable originals and smartly-chosen covers that he molds into his own image. And once again, he’s got producer Kevin Shirley behind the boards.
The man with the golden Les Paul wastes no time plopping down that calling card when he intros the lead off track “Steal Your Heart Away” Jimmy Page style, switching to a strut and launching his voice into near blues yodeling, matching the intensity of his axe. Next up is John Hiatt‘s “I Know A Place,” and Bonamassa lays down a succulent slab of heavy blues guitar to Hiatt’s swampy rocker. I really like Hiatt’s version, but Bonamassa’s interpretation scores higher for the passion and the power he pours into it.
At this point of the album, Bonnamassa’s barely opened up his bulging bag of tricks. After the raucous acoustic/electric stomper “When The Fire Hits The Seas” comes an enchanting mixture of Japanese and blues melodic forms he calls “Quarryman’s Lament.” “Blue And Evil” is that heavy, mystical blues that Led Zeppelin perfected. Jeff Beck‘s “Spanish Boots” unapologetically rocks like Gary Moore, Leonard Cohen‘s “Bird On A Wire” sways with Bonamassa’s spanish guitar jousting in the background with a violin, and the old blues standby “Look Over Yonders Wall” is freshened by his tough treatment. “Baby You Gotta Change Your Mind” is an easygoing acoustic Blind Boy Fuller cover that brings this aural airliner down to a soft, lighthearted landing.
However, the cherry on top of this sundae is a duet with B.B. King, trading both vocals and guitar licks in the Willie Nelson tune “Night Life” (first recorded by King back in 1967). The two found common ground in the Rolling Stones-styled arrangement with a R&B horn chart thrown in to make it swing like the older master loves to do.
The tasty licks come by the buckets in 31 varieties, and yet this record never has the feel of a guitar virtuoso album, a label that would have damned the record to the fretheads only. That’s because he makes his golden guitar a means to end, not the entire show. Joe Bonamassa has stepped out beyond that limited audience to offer modern blues to the masses that he carries out by combining it with a few other things, but never diluting its soul.
The rock guitar icon Slash recently tweeted that he “just saw Joe Bonamassa play the other night, he is bad ass.” Slash’s no-nonsense assessment correctly sizes up Bonamassa in a nutshell.
Black Rock is pretty bad assed, too.
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