Why Joe Bonamassa Is Important to the fate of the Blues.
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Now here we have an individual of magnetic importance to the music world, yet how unfortunate it is for him to arrive at such a time when music is as sterile and unloving as an asylum ward. Now Bonammasa’s music and guitar playing may be a tapestry of a myriad of influences, so innate in fact that on occasion when listening you can pretty much pick out who he is influenced by and who he is trying to emulate but this doesn’t matter. Now take Stevie Ray Vaughan, he was the soul the revivalist of electric blues in the eighties was obviously schooled and cultured in the same blood line as Albert King and Buddy Guy, his influences and style were a unique blend of which thankfully released blues back into the world and into the charts as well as the hearts of many who had become bored with the techno, synthesiser, miming bullshit of Top Of The Pops. In fact when first discovering Joe Bonamassa a fellow musician instantly told me that he was an SRV rip off while others told me that he sounded like Gary Moore, needless to say neither of them were right. Joe Bonamassa may not be an original artist but for this day and age he is well on his way of becoming a legend in his own right and if I may make a prediction then I say that he is most likely going to be remembered for a very long time as long as he gets over the proverbial path of wading through the unbelievable, crass, repetitive shit that I see every time I change the channel on the TV remote to look through the so called music channels. I have seen Bonamassa twice in concert and each time I have found it a joy and a pleasure to be their at that moment in time, along with all the other followers who discovered as like most people through word of mouth, now he may have stood for most of the gig and only made a handful of times of walking around the stage and exercising his persona but be it that he was still more interesting to watch then those people who feel they have to jump around just to get a reaction from a limited audience. His playing versatile and elastic, with a proficiency of which I have not heard in a very long time and the best thing about this man is that until now he has never had a number one hit record or single either here in England or America, now that is something remarkable been that this man has flourished as a musician simply just through word of mouth and he is bigger than ever now.
Photo by Zephyrance Lou