ESSENTIAL ALBUMS
J oe Bonamassa is a constant student of the guitar . The Music of Ry Cooder , Chris Whitley and Robben Ford help to expand his current vocabulary . For this edition of Essential albums , we asked about the music that influenced his early days with the guitar .
The first two albums that I bought were Steve Morse The Introduction , for the shear dexterity plus the cover of the record had a cool guitar . B . B . King Live at the Regal changed my life . I mean like , I wanted a horn section . My god , if I could only get a horn section and a band like this . And then B . B .’ s playing , the tone . Other essential records at the very beginning have to be Roy Buchanan Livestock , and subsequently , probably when I was turning 11 , I met Danny Gatton and he gave me a copy of his record on vinyl , called Unfinished Business . And between those two I was Joe Telecaster . I was like this is the best .
BONAMASSA
When I was in my teenage years 15 , 16 , I was in a band ( Bloodline ). We were signed to EMI records . We were touring and I hated being in a band . I hated the people around me because I was constantly kind of picked on and singled out as being too young to do anything . I was kind of disillusioned because I was a hard worker and I really wanted to work . And I wanted to play . The band guys , to their credit , they were all in their early 20s and they are in a band by John Stix
4 GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER DIGITAL EDITION
Joe Bonamassa by Christie Goodwin
MARCH / APRIL