When I heard that Joe Bonamassa had formed a supergroup with some other heavy hitters and that these guys were in the studio making a record, I gotta admit, I was pretty excited.
Bonamassa has pretty much reached the pinnacle and done it all as a solo blues-rock musician; joining a band as a peer seemed to be the logical new frontier for a former prodigy who quickly fulfilled the promise he showed at an early age – and then some.
Next came Black Country Communion, conceived by Bonamassa’s producer, the renowned Kevin Shirley, after he witnessed Joe Bonamassa rip it up on stage with bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes on stage in November 2009.
Called “The Voice of Rock,” Hughes earned that distinction from stints with Trapeze, Deep Purple (from 1973-76) and notable appearances on other metal act albums, such as Black Sabbath’s Seventh Star. On top of all that, Hughes is a very nimble bass player who knows how to add the right layer underneath massive guitar riffs and work in sync with the drummer.
After Shirley sold Bonamassa and Hughes on the idea, he brought in Jason Bonham (who fills in for his late father whenever there is a Led Zeppelin reunion show and is a fine drummer in his own right) and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (a former member of the prime prog-rock band Dream Theater). Both Bonham and Sherinian have gone on to perform with some of the other biggest names in rock.
The new band quickly got to work on a slate of 12 originals by Bonamassa and Hughes. Given the overall pedigree, they were never destined to be a blues band; instead, Black Country Communion’s self-titled debut arrived on Sept. 20, 2010 as an Anglo-American hard-rock gem. This was the hard rock of its golden age in the ’70s, when Deep Purple, Sabbath, Boston, Bon Scott-era AC/DC, etc., dominated the genre with memorable and anthemic riffs and buckets of attitude, while retaining some strains of blues and soul.
If anyone wondered whether Glenn Hughes had lost any of his range, power and passion, he quickly dispatched all doubt on the calling-card first track “Black Country.” But Hughes’ rumbling bass actually gets the song going, as Joe Bonamassa unleashes the dogs when it’s solo time. The climax comes when Hughes and Bonamassa engage in a vocal/guitar call and response, “Whole Lotta Love” style; no surprise that Bonham knew just what to do there.
That strong start continued with the hard-grooving advance single “One Last Soul,” where Hughes alternated singing in two octaves. “The Great Divide” continued the roll with Bonamassa’s blues-inflected attack and heavy riffs, as Hughes screams “I’m gonna let my freak flag fly” much more defiantly than David Crosby ever did. “Down Again” brought out a Bad Company-brand of British blues-drenched rock. “Beggarman” was relentless, like rolling thunder: Hughes and Bonham formed a tenacious bass-drums combination, and Bonamassa killed it like a supercharged Jimmy Page, as he did just about everywhere else.
Black Country Communion also had a secret weapon in Joe Bonamassa as vocalist. He took over the mic for “The Revolution In Me,” while sharing singing duties with Hughes on “Song of Yesterday” and the concluding “Too Late For the Sun,” an 11-minute epic, but I’m not sure why it needed to run that long – although Jason Bonham put in his best work here.
But my list of quibbles with Black Country Communion begins and ends there. What was already clear from their first album is that this group put in some seriously good work putting together a set of songs that aren’t all the same, and got everyone involved and playing to their strengths.
This sounded in no way like a half-hearted effort by a bunch of big egos. Instead, Black Country Communion’s debut was a firm declaration to the Green Days and Foo Fighters out there that the old-school hard-rock guys were back. With a vengeance.
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I've been looking forward to this one since last December when I first heard rumblings of it.
I believe I've read in recent interviews that Hughes has already started writing material for the second album.