What does it sound like?:
In the summer of 2016, Joe Bonamassa played a short run of shows in the UK to celebrate the work of three guitarists who have had a major influence on him – Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, all of whom of course held tenure at one point in The Yardbirds.
This two cd set, recorded live at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, gives him and his band an opportunity to showcase material from all three of those figureheads, from both their solo and band careers. Thus we get excellent passionate renditions of Beck’s Bolero, Rice Pudding and Plynth, Cream’s SWLABR, and Zeppelin’s Tea For One, surely one of their most underrated and overlooked songs. That’s just a small sample from this first class show – there’s no doubting Bonamassa’a musical prowess of course, but these tunes obviously mean a lot to him, and he plays them superbly, backed by a very tight little band. I really enjoyed this set – it’s a great way of paying tribute to the work of these three guitarists, and he’s chosen well from their extensive catalogues to give a flavour of their contrasting styles, while at the same time putting his own inimatable stamp on their music. He sticks fairly closely to the originals, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – as the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke…..
What does it all *mean*?
Heavyweight music played with great reverence and respect, as Bonamassa pays homage to these three great innovative guitarists, who inspired him and ignited his love for the British blues rock scene.
Goes well with…
An evening of blues power.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
British guitar heroes.
Bargepole says
Baron Harkonnen says
I like JB. I’m not an expert on guitarists but I love to listen to good ‘uns. This guy ensures that the music/musicians he covers (you reading this JP?) get their dues and he can play. I think I’ll get the Bluray Edition.
Bargepole says
Junior Wells says
He can play alright. Great taste in guitars and songs.
Main issue is overprolific and can lapse into lumpen stuff at times.
fortuneight says
Sold!
Pizon-bros says
I have a question about JB, I like early blues and very often, when I do my researchs on internet, his name appears like he is the new thing in blues, Keb Mo as well, but JB, much more. I listened to him, it’s perfect, but it doesn’t touches me, he plays well, but it’s so clean, a nice product. Is that more a virtuoso thing than blues? “The operation went well, but the patient died ” sort of thing. Is there something I missed?
Mike_H says
“The operation went well, but the patient died” .
I think there’s rather a lot of that, when it comes to ye olde Blues plank-spanking.
And ye olde layer-on-those-keyboards Prog, to be fair.
Pizon-bros says
“The operation went well, but the patient died” refers to a perfectionist surgeon who forget that the goal is to keep the patient alive.
The likes of Robert Hicks with his 12 strings with his often untuned guitar can hardly be described as perfectionists, but when they sing “Mississipi heavy water blues” or “death leter”, it feels like they had gone through this themselves. This performing is not just a question of origin or being born at the right decade, even Joe Yamanaka with his strong Japanese accent makes me believe that he have spend a long time in the “house of the rising sun”.
Junior Wells says
Well he does play “clean” but I have heard him play stuff dripping with the blues, and I listen to a lot of blues.
Pizon-bros says
Then I haven’t listen enough to blues.
Junior Wells says
You like early blues – does that mean acoustic roots stuff.
JB is largely an electric bluesman.
The playing on this sounds pretty bluesy to me.
Junior Wells says
or this – So May Roads – an Otis Rush song if memory serves.
Junior Wells says
However, I was looking for some slower acoustic blues redolent with emotion and I gotta say Joe is definitely a more is more kinda guy. I couldn’t find any.