Google have been spamming me with links to Joe Bonamassa's new album with Beth Hart.
Well, I heard a track on Radio 2 the other day and it was a cover from Ella Fitzgerald's repertoire. The vocal performance was sublime but the guitar solos on it were totally unoriginal 'meedly meedly' runs with no musical relation to the song.
Here's what Joe's website had to say about that track, "..one of the most surprising and effective tracks, "Lullaby of the Leaves." Written for Broadway in the early 1930s and recorded beautifully by Ella Fitzgerald in 1964, the ballad moves Hart into smoky torch-song territory, her low velvety tones choked with sublimated pain. It then grows into a dramatic rock tour-de-force as Bonamassa delivers a guitar solo over a rhythmic development reminiscent of Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses."
It certainly didn't channel anything as innovative as Clapton's soloing with Cream.
Comments
Track two is a bit overblown and the rhythm section isn't all that great, but it's generally OK in the "whoah bodyform" (as my old singer used to call it) school of female blues vocalists, but if you didn't know it was JoBo you'd be saying "that guitarist is really overplaying" during the solo.
On to Black Coffee now, and the histrionic vocals and kitchen sink production is starting to grate a bit now.
Not recommended.
Not in the least surprised OP didnt dig one of his songs
Say no more....
The rawness of the performance adds a whole dimension that is missing from the Beth/Joe album version.
In saying that, I did personally listen to the 30 sec clips off of iTunes just in case the rest of the album was better than the title track, and, I personally think the album whole is better than the title track. So I'll probably purchase it.
Admittedly part of it is because I want to hear Joe's guitar without his weird voice that sounds like someone singing with a plastic cup over their mouth.
JV's playing may be sparse but oh how he can carry a tune ffs.
I don't get it. The production sounds fine to me! And I really didn't feel that JB over-played it.
I personally enjoyed it. There's some great songs there. I know, pretty much none of it is their own, but I think it might be my favourite out of the 3. But I'd have to go back and re-listen to the first 2 to say definitively
Admittedly, I think Sloe Gin & Black Rock is the two that suffered the most from The Caveman's mic'd amp-under-blankets production he somehow manages to achieve consistently.
another album of covers. is this the 23rd album of covers from Joe in 2018 ?
I really like Joe and his playing but a few albums ago, it became clear to me (I'm sure others like it) that Joe just isn't writing good enough songs, and is basically just re-hashing covers to death now, which explains how he's pushing out such a high volume of albums. It's really easy as an arm chair critic, but for someone of Joes talent I expect so very much more, and I wonder if Kevin, who seems on the outside to be a very close trusted friend and musical partner maybe just as key in the problem. Fresh eyes and a fresh album of something new (still in the blues style if you want) is needed.
I absolutely hate the drum sound though which Kevin Shirley manages to get to the front of everything he produces.
Well deserved WIS added.
Feedback
Just had this on in the car, don’t even know if it’s the same song but it’s called the same at least.
I guess I’m slightly surprised that no one working with Joe and Beth Hart said it was a bit odd putting out something covered by Rival Sons 12 months earlier.
I like JB/BH's version, but there's heaps of great covers of it out there. I think my favourite has been Humble Pie's.
This reminds me I really need to go back and dig out that Rival Sons album and listen to it properly. Thing is I haven't really been excited by a Rival Sons album since Pressure & Time. That's the only RS album I think I've ever been able to listen to from front to back over and over.