Why Joe Bonamassa Is Important to the fate of the Blues.
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As some bands - musicians have shown us in the past, everybody reaches they’re peak at some point in their career, a point where they are unstoppable musically and personally, now I’m not saying that Bonamassa has reached his peak I am simple stating that maybe the best is yet to come, even though with the listening of his previous album ’Driving Towards The Daylight’ I have found that it seems to follow a winning formula as of the ’The Ballad Of John Henry’ and of course the album of which I was introduced to his genius ’You and Me’ that featured the impeccable rendition of Led Zeppelin’s ’Tea For One’. The first time I managed to afford tickets to see him was when I was stuck on the night shift a few years ago and me and my dad saw him at the small O2 club in Leeds City Centre, the venue was filled with a stream of different generations to the very young and to the middle aged as well as a few in the know teenagers who had flocked to see this man perform and it was amazing.
A searing, intimate and electric performance one of which I have only seen on film of my favourite bands. His set mostly comprised that of the albums The Ballad Of John Henry and ’You and Me’ as well as his usual stock covers of ZZ Top’s Just Got Paid and Led Zeppelin’s ’Dazed and Confused, these two of which had been expertly entwined with one another while he also introduced a Theremin to the proceedings to his performance to which I found was an interesting and unexpected addition to the proceeding’s. Never had I seen a show like this one, as I stood in a amidst the sweaty and cramped dance floor, staring up at the gleaming lit stage which was definitely too small for a musician of Bonamassa’s calibre but one of intimacy and class and the audience loved every minute, creating some crazy, adrenaline fulled worship, even during my many drinks I found myself more intoxicated by the performance and amazement then anything else as I saw a bloke been pulled put by his friends who had been at the front of the stage probably suffering from heated asphyxiation. And it wasn’t just Bonamassa who was on top form, his band played immaculately bouncing off their leaders provision with grace and professionalism and needles to say it was one of the best gigs I have ever seen. With my experience and love of music, spending nights in venues and arenas watching the performances of my musical heroes or unsigned bands in dive pubs and other places I have found that Bonamassa has what every musician has, which is song writing capability, virtuosity of they’re instrument as well as been an admirable live performer and that is one of the many great things I can say about this particular musician, is that he has the talent and expertise to continue on a fruitful and blessed career. Yet the thing I worry about with most bands that I like is waiting for the void to come, that inescapable place in a musicians career where they can no longer seek any originality for their talent and have simply lost there way. Now the one person who I can think of who fell into that pit was Eric Clapton, not he may not have been a Hendrix or a Blackmore when it came to untouchable proficiency but he did have his moments of incendiary songwriting and guitar playing. Yet this only lasted a few years with his time spent in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers through to Cream, yet he did not lose this to some higher power but due to his addiction and laziness as a musician especially when writing crass and unbelievably boring love songs such as ’Wonderful Tonight’ now that it is a landmark in his career to which he can never recover from and let’s not forget that his once powerful guitar playing has now become littered with stock licks and repetitive blues runs, hopefully Bonamassa will never end up like that. Also along with such a lucrative solo career he has managed to form Black Country Communion with one of Heavy Metal and Hard Rocks legendary heroes Glenn Hughes, b at first I was sceptical of this band been that I had heard through many Music Magazines and Internet reviews that this band were simply a rip off of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, now those two bands may be they’re immediate influences but the style and heaviness of the music has seemed to reignite Rock music back into the mainstream and Bonamassa’s playing has continued to blossom and reach new peaks, and needless to say I was not expecting that.