Joe Bonamassa - new album...

Octahedron

Joe Bonamassa is releasing a new album in September.

"Oh no not another Joe Bonamassa album!" I hear you scream.

1) His last studio album was released in 2012 (Driving Toward the Daylight)

2) This album contains... ENTIRELY ORIGINAL MATERIAL! That's right. ZERO blues covers. Just all blues originals by JB. 

Well, I actually think some of the stuff he writes of his own is better than the covers anyway. I love songs like The Ballad of John Henry, Driving Towards the Daylight, Bridge to Better Days, Torn Down, Black Lung Heartache, Slow Train among others. 

It's called Different Shades of Blue, here's the cover:

And here's the scoop on his official site: http://jbonamassa.com/joe-bonamassa-to-release-new-solo-album-different-shades-of-blue/

Thoughts? 

EricTheWeary

Kevin Shirley production - run for the hills! (

Joe would be a lot better off without him IMHO. It is also an awful album title.

Octahedron

Someone remarked about the album title on his official forums "thank God it's not 50 shades of blue" :P 

That said, I didn't mind the production on Driving Towards the Daylight. Shirley absolutely ruined Dust Bowl and Black Rock though. They sounded incredibly rushed and mushy and they had that characteristic (as someone once described it) sound which is likened to the guitar having been "recorded under a bed sheet" - lifeless. But I never really found any issue with You & Me, Sloe Gin, DTTD, ...John Henry. 

RocknRollDave

DTTD was the best solo album he'd done for a while.

I wish he'd stuck with BCC, I'd have loved to have seen them live.

Not sure what I think of the idea of all-originals...I tend to find the covers are better..

EDIT: I do find, as a JB fan, that the sheer amount of product he has out there is getting ridiculous and is alienating his fans, plus his pricing is way off the mark.
He released separate DVD's of the London shows each now priced around £18 and in a stroke of marketing genius released them as a box set of 4 which was MORE expensive than buying them individually. D'oh.

Definitely feeling like we're funding his expensive guitar collection rather than getting good value for money.

richardhomer

Woah - definitely need to avoid Guitarist for the next few weeks.

There's generally nothing worse than an 'original' blues....

This is where an artist comes up with some hackneyed tosh in order to receive publishing as well.

I will not be going within several hundred yards of a copy of this....

meltedbuzzbox

he should change his name to Mr Paradox

Octahedron

Thus, this should be one of the year's more "interesting" releases for the guitar world.  

beed84

Never been a fan and I wish he'd piss off to be honest.

axisus

Terrible cover. 

Can't get into JB. Tried. Wanted to like.

not_the_dj

axisus said:

Terrible cover. 

I assumed it was based on this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Rollie_Free,_record_run.jpg

Octahedron

Oh so it's not merely an artist's impression of Bonamassa hanging on to his career for dear life then? :P 

I went there!

EricTheWeary

richardhomer said:

There's generally nothing worse than an 'original' blues....

This is where an artist comes up with some hackneyed tosh in order to receive publishing as well.

There are a lot of examples of this! On the other hand there are well written modern blues from the likes of Keb Mo and Robert Cray and Joe Louis Walker,etc, that are more than two verses about having a Mojo hand and then a five minute guitar solo. So, I'll remain optimistic.

@not_the_dj what's that picture from then?

not_the_dj

EricTheWeary said:

@not_the_dj what's that picture from then?

That's a Vincent Black Lightning (yes as in the RT song). 

The guy is Rollie Free, on the Utah Salt Flats in '48. Almost 150 mph in his trunks. He was only able to look down, so he's just following that black line.

http://42ndblackwatch1881.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/c-4.jpeg

EricTheWeary

not_the_dj said:

EricTheWeary said:

@not_the_dj what's that picture from then?

That's a Vincent Black Lightning (yes as in the RT song). 

The guy is Rollie Free, on the Utah Salt Flats in '48. Almost 150 mph in his trunks.

http://42ndblackwatch1881.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/c-4.jpeg

Ahh. I watched some youtube interview with RT and they asked him if he had ever owned a Vincent Black Lightning and he said no but also rolled off the stats about how many had been made, what they were worth and all sorts of stuff. I'd assumed it was just a good sounding bike name for a song but he seemed to have a real interest.

That picture made me think of the film The World's Fastest Indian which is, in part, set on the Utah Salt Flats in the 1960's. Slightly sentimental but quite enjoyable fillum.

not_the_dj

EricTheWeary said:

That picture made me think of the film The World's Fastest Indian which is, in part, set on the Utah Salt Flats in the 1960's. Slightly sentimental but quite enjoyable fillum.

Antony Hopkins IIRC. Yeah I remember seeing that. 

Panama_Jack666

I love that album cover. Best JoBo album cover to date I reckon. I hope the music matches up!

vasselmeyer

richardhomer said:

Woah - definitely need to avoid Guitarist for the next few weeks.

@richardhomer You certainly do. Just received the latest issue and in the "Coming next month" section they're advertising "A Private Lessone with Joe Bonamassa".

Now, don't get me wrong; I love blues rock but I'm SURE there are other artists in the genre they could cover.

axisus

not_the_dj said:

axisus said:

Terrible cover. 

I assumed it was based on this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Rollie_Free,_record_run.jpg

Yeah, if he'd have used that pic it would have been classic! That's obviously the guy getting the speed record at the time. The album cover just looks like a daft cartoon of it with some poor photoshop to give indication of speeding.

equalsql

I don't get it.. what's with all the hate? It's not as though he's spitting on his fans or treating people like shyte.
I'm not a fan of his 'corporate/dark-glasses' image but I don't hear people slagging of Joe Satriani for looking like a twit.

Come on chaps, he's a decent player, trying to keep his career going as best he can. Sure he is derivative and has nicked plenty of his chops from other players (who of us hasn't?), but he plays his heart out and inspires a lot of young players.

I don't own a single album by him, and probably never will, but give the guy a break. He's working as hard as he can and putting it out there. He earns my respect for that.

Anyways, Doug & Pat seem to like him... and that's good enough for me

Gassage

I like some of his stuff and I've also met him a few times due to working a little at LIPA. He's a lovely guy and although I struggle with a lot of his recorded stuff, his shows are epic and great (even though you only ever need see him once).

I do laugh at his...emmmm....brand leverage though....

Octahedron

Finally, first track unveiled from the album - see: 

I quite like. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting but there's some nice licks in there. And the production isn't as bad as I thought it would be. In saying that I'd classify it "unmistakably Bonamassa"