Joe Bonamassa, a young player with the childhood dream of playing music similar to legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, was 22 when he inked a deal with Epic Records. Hailing from Utica, New York, Bonamassa could play the blues before he could drive a car.
He first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan at age four and was instantly taken by Vaughan’s high-powered playing. At age eight, he opened for B.B. King, and at age 12, he was playing regularly around upstate New York. It was soon thereafter that Bonamassa hooked up with the band Bloodline, which featured other musicians’ sons: Waylon Krieger (Robby Krieger’s son), Erin Davis (Miles Davis’ drummer kid), and Berry Oakley, Jr. (son of the Allman Brothers bassist). Bloodline released a self-titled album, but Bonamassa wanted to move on.
In the summer of 2000, he guested for Roger McGuinn on Jethro Tull’s summer tour, later releasing his debut solo album, A New Day Yesterday. Produced by longtime fan Tom Dowd, the album marked a move toward a more organic and rock-sounding direction. He put together a power trio with drummer Kenny Kramme and bassist Eric Czar and hit the road to support the album.
Upon returning from the road, he hooked up with Dowd to record the muscular and sweeping studio disc So, It’s Like That and released a document of the tour, A New Day Yesterday Live. The following year, Bonamassa put out Blues Deluxe, featuring nine cover versions of blues classics alongside three originals. The muscular You & Me appeared in 2006, followed by the more acoustic-tinged Sloe Gin in 2007. A year later, Bonamassa released the two-disc live album Live from Nowhere in Particular, followed in 2009 by The Ballad of John Henry. Late in 2009 he released the DVD Live from the Royal Albert Hall with guest spots from Eric Clapton and Paul Jones.
In 2010, the guitarist released his first disc for the Premier Artists label, Black Rock, featuring a guest appearance by B.B. King. It was followed by the debut album from Black Country Communion, a blues-rock super group that put him in the company of bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Bonamassa, ever the overachiever, released his earthy Dust Bowl in March of 2011, followed by Black Country Communion’s 2 in June and by his unique collaboration with vocalist Beth Hart on a searing collection of soul covers entitled Don’t Explain in September.
In May of 2012, Bonamassa released Driving Towards the Daylight. The album reunited the guitarist with producer Kevin Shirley, who brought in Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford to play rhythm guitar on the 11 tracks. Driving Towards the Daylight was a significant blues hit–it topped the Billboard blues chart and debuted at number two on the overall British chart–and Bonamassa didn’t slow down. Early in 2013, he released a live CD/DVD set called An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House and prepared See Saw, a studio album of classic covers with vocalist Beth Hart. See Saw was released later in 2013, and Bonamassa and Hart followed it up with Live in Amsterdam in March of 2014. After the release of See Saw, Bonamassa returned to the studio once again with producer Shirley to record what would be his 11th solo studio album. As a thank-you to his fans for their continued support, Bonamassa announced that the album would be his first release to feature entirely original material. Different Shades of Blue appeared in the fall of 2014, featuring 11 new songs co-written by Bonamassa with various veteran Nashville songwriters.
Another busy year followed in 2015, with Bonamassa playing on Mahalia Barnes’ Betty Davis tribute Ooh Yea! The Betty Davis Songbook and releasing two separate live collections: Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks in the spring and Live at Radio City Music Hall in the fall. Returning to Nashville, he recorded his studio follow-up to the highly successful Different Shades of Blue. The album, Blues of Desperation, was released in March, 2016.
Another live recording, Live at the Greek Theatre, celebrated the work of blues legends such as B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King and followed that summer. At the beginning of that year, Bonamassa headed out on an all-acoustic tour which saw him performing some of his best-known material in a new way. The tour included two nights at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York, which were filmed and recorded for posterity. The performances saw him backed by a full band, alongside the likes of guest musician’s, Chinese cellist and erhuist (spike fiddle) Tina Guo and Egyptian percussionist and composer Hossam Ramzy. The recording, Live at Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening, was released in mid-2017.
Bonamassa released the live album and film, Now Serving: Royal Tea Live from the Ryman, on June 11, 2021. It was from his one-night-only concert, at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on September 20, 2020. The show was live-streamed at the time, and raised $32,000 for Bonamassa’s Fueling Musicians program, which has been helping financially struggling musicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discography
A New Day Yesterday (2000)
So, It’s Like That (2002)
Blues Deluxe (2003)
Had To Cry Today (2004)
You & Me (2006)
Sloe Gin (2007)
The Ballad of John Henry (2009)
Black Rock (2010)
Dust Bowl (2011)
Driving Towards the Daylight (2012)
Different Shades of Blue (2014)
Blues of Desperation (2016)
Redemption (2018)
British Blues Explosion Live (2018)
Live at the Sydney Opera House (2019)
Royal Tea (2020)
Time Clocks (2021)
Now Serving: Royal Tea Live from the Ryman (2021)
Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 (2023)
Tales of Time(2023)
[Details and complete discography here.]
Ref: jbonamassa.com
2023:
Having recently released his live concert film Tales of Time which reached #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart, Joe Bonamassa is back with a brand new single “I Want To Shout About It” from his highly anticipated new studio album, due out later this year on his J&R Adventures label.
Originally performed by Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters, Joe Bonamassa reveals his rendition of “I Want To Shout About It.” Bonamassa’s joyful version features solos from Reese Wynans on organ and Paulie Cerra on sax, as well as vocals from Dannielle DeAndrea and Charles Jones as the track winds to a close. When Joe recently performed the song on his UK tour, UK music website Sonic Abuse described it as “a glorious, fifties-style boogie.”
His new track is “Lazy Poker Blues” is an advance from his upcoming October 2023 album, Blues Deluxe Vol. 2. and he second track is ” I Done Got Over It.”
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM plays Joe Bonamassa . All part of 50 years of Rock, Blues and More, 24-7 on our station’s stream at K-ZAP.ORG/LISTEN/
Check out Joe Bonamassa :