Joe Bonamassa - Blues Deluxe Vol. 2

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2023
Time: 42:40 
Size: 99,0 MB 
Label: A&R Adventures
Styles: Blues/Blues Rock
Art: Front 

Tracks Listing:
 1. Twenty-Four Hour Blues - 4:32
 2. It's Hard But It's Fair - 3:16
 3. Well, I Done Got Over It - 2:54
 4. I Want To Shout About It - 4:13
 5. Win-O - 5:29
 6. Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again) - 3:58
 7. Lazy Poker Blues - 3:18
 8. You Sure Drive A Hard Bargain - 3:59
 9. The Truth Hurts (Featuring  Kirk Fletcher & Josh Smith) - 4:35
10. Is It Safe To Go Home - 6:22

For Joe Bonamassa, the UK “guitar gods” of the sixties were the gateway drug that led him to develop a passion for the blues. He cites hearing John Mayall & the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (the “Beano” album) as a particularly revelatory encounter. That seminal album, along with the first Paul Butterfield LP, The Blues Project Live at the Café Au Go Go, and a few other white-kids-play-the-blues collections, led many a bedazzled young lad or lass to seek out the hard stuff—Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, the Three Kings, John Lee Hooker, the list goes on.The “Beano” album was over ten years old by the time Bonamassa was born, and its reverential takes on Chicago blues had long since morphed into the bone-crushing blues-rock of the Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, the early version of Fleetwood Mac, and other off-shoots of the London blues scene. The title of Bonamassa’s back-to-the-blues diptych is borrowed from a cut on another enormously-influential album of the ‘sixties, the Jeff Beck Group’s Truth. Twenty years ago, he covered that Beck/Stewart number in the first of what turns out to be a two-volume set in which he re-visits some of the talismanic moments of his immersion in the blues. For this second excursion into the modern blues canon, Bonamassa relies on his core group of close associates: producer and guitarist Josh Smith and JB have co-produced sessions for other artists, and keyboard ace Reese Wynans, bassist Calvin Turner, and drummer Lamar Carter are their go-to session men. Turner also provided string and horn arrangements on some tracks.Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 references a fairly specific sub-set of the blues tradition, and a slightly different one than JB conjured up in Volume 1. The arrangements lean toward Memphis R&B while the guitar solos reference Chicago blues by way of late-sixties London. Imagine there’s a juke joint at the corner of Beale Street, Memphis, and Wardour Street, Soho, and let’s have a gander inside.Bonamassa doesn’t waste any time reminding us what a supremely talented guitarist he is. His take on “Twenty-four Hour Blues”, originally recorded by Bobby “Blue” Bland, is full of those OMG moments that blues-guitar fans live for. Bonamassa’s early mentor, Danny Gatton, was reputedly obsessed with dialing in the perfect tone, and JB was obviously an attentive acolyte. The sustain and clarity he achieves on the treble strings is extraordinary, and there’s a shimmer of echo at the end of his ascending licks that’ll send shivers down your spine. JB covered Bland’s “I Don’t Believe” back in 2006 on his You & Me album, so this latest tribute is further evidence of his abiding regard for one of his most important influences.The Bobby Bland song flows seamlessly into the second track, a cover of Bobby Parker’s “It’s Hard But It’s Fair” from 1968. Parker has been compared to Bobby Bland and Bland’s guitarist Wayne Bennett; they’re blues artists who have one foot in the soul/R&B genre, and that, again, is a territory that Bonamassa’s exploring in this latest set. JB covered Parker’s “Steal Your Heart Away” on his Black Rock album (2010), and it’s interesting to compare the two(https://www.rockandbluesmuse.com/2023/10/03/review-joe-bonamassa-blues-deluxe-vol-2/).

Vol.2