Joe Bonamassa isn’t even fifty yet, but his career already spans four decades. He has shared stages with everyone from B.B. King to Gary Moore, and collaborated with artists such as Beth Hart and Glenn Hughes. While blues remains his first language, he is equally fluent in rock, jazz, and country. Simply put, he is his generation’s foremost blues ambassador, carrying this American tradition to a wide audience and filling venues around the world.
If your idea of the blues is an old man strumming a worn guitar on a porch, a Joe Bonamassa show will quickly disabuse you of that notion. This is blues on a large scale. Taking cues from B.B. King, Bonamassa has built a production that can fill a room like La Seine Musicale without losing its center. The lighting is carefully handled, the band is first-rate, and the whole thing is paced with enough control to carry the music across a venue of that size.
For those who have followed him closely, one change stands out: longtime keyboardist Reese Wynans has stepped away, and in his place sits Lachy Doley, who settles in without difficulty. His extended Hammond passages and exchanges with Bonamassa are among the stronger moments of the night. Second guitarist and musical director Josh Smith is also given room, his playing offering a useful counterpoint rather than competition. On bass and drums, Calvin Turner and Lemar Carter keep things steady, leaving space when needed, pushing when required, laying the necessary foundation upon which Bonamassa can build and stretch. Backing vocalists Jade MacRae and Danielle DeAndrea add depth, and a touch of class to the proceedings.
The center of attention remains Bonamassa and his incendiary yet tasteful guitar playing. Solos are frequent and often extended, but never feel excessive. He moves easily between slower material and more forceful pieces, adjusting his tone and phrasing accordingly. There is a lightness in some passages, a heavier attack in others, but always a sense of control. And for guitar aficionados, the rotation of instruments (Les Paul, Stratocaster, Telecaster, ES-335) is quite the treat.
The setlist follows the same logic. Covers of Delaney & Bonnie, Rory Gallagher, and Freddie King sit comfortably alongside his own material, “Pack It Up,” “The Last Matador of Bayonne,” and selections from the latest album Breakthrough such as “Trigger Finger” and “Drive By The Exit Sign” and, an an encore, one of his signature tunes, “Mountain Time”.
Two hours of rollicking blues, at once reverent and modern. By looking back at past blues traditions and building a bridge to the future, Joe Bonamassa fulfills a bluesman's most important mission: transmission.
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