Joe Bonamassa: Driving Towards the Daylight (J&R Adventures)

 |   |  <1 min read

Joe Bonamassa: Stones in My Passway
Joe Bonamassa: Driving Towards the Daylight (J&R Adventures)

Gutsy, earthy and steeped in the blues, singer-guitarist Bonamassa seems an unstoppable force. He fires off albums under his own name (this his third in two years) and with Black Country Communion (two albums and double live in Europe in the same period).

He also puts himself about as a guest player, and his album with leather larynxed Beth Hart, Don't Explain, got a favourable notice here last November. Lotta albums in a short period.

Here he mixes construction site originals with aggressive takes on Robert Johnson's Stones in My Passway, Howlin' Wolf's Who's Been Talking (with a spoken intro by Wolf), Willie Dixon's groove-riding I Got All You Need, Bill Withers' Lonely Town Lonely Street and Tom Waits' New Coat of Paint taken as far as you can imagine from Waits' original piano ballad.

He reaches for Santana's tone on the widescreen and brass enhanced A Place in My Heart.

Supported by seasoned players (drummer Anton Fig, Aerosmith's Brad Whitford among them), this is often unsubtle rock-blues framed for stadiums and full volume. Jimmy Barnes reprises his late Eighties solo hit Too Much Ain't Enough Love in that distinctive, throat abusing yelp.

Barnes, Aerosmith, volume . . . You have your reference points.

The spirit of Seventies-style stadium-shaking blues rock is in safe and busy hands.

Like the sound of this? Then check out this.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Blues at Elsewhere articles index

Kingfish: Kingfish (Alligator/Southbound)

Kingfish: Kingfish (Alligator/Southbound)

From the scouring and driving opening track on this debut album by 20-year old Christone Ingram – aka Kingfish – you might feel you are in for a pretty familiar electric blues ride out... > Read more

Son of Dave: '02' (Kartel/Rhythmethod)

Son of Dave: '02' (Kartel/Rhythmethod)

In the last couple of years this UK-based Canadian-born singer-songwriter (aka Ben Darvill, formerly of Crash Test Dummies) has conjured up the spirit and sound of old bluesmen punctuated with raw... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Simon Gooding of The Map Room

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Simon Gooding of The Map Room

Simon Gooding is one half of The Map Room whose debut album All You'll Ever Find has impressed Elsewhere. He is a graduate of School of Audio Engineering and that was where he met fellow Map Room... > Read more

Andy Sheppard Quartet: Surrounded by Sea (ECM/Ode)

Andy Sheppard Quartet: Surrounded by Sea (ECM/Ode)

Those old enough the remember when British saxophonist Andy Sheppard emerged as a new wave out of Britain alongside Loose Tubes, Courtney Pine and others might be surprised a little by this elegant... > Read more