Joe Bonamassa - new album...

SimonC

Is it just me or is he looking more like Peter Kay every day.

You never see them in the same room together do you?

 

"Garlic.......bread??"

Zodiac51

Shame Joe doesn't play a PRS, then he could encapsulate all the TFB hate groups in one go.

Wait strike that.. He doesn't have a Pinstripe for sale or hasn't voiced any opinion on which way to turn if you are on a collision course in a fighter jet, but his fingers do look a little fat though....

hubobulous

The thing for me is that he's not forcing anyone to buy his merchandise. If anyone wants to buy the box set rather than individual DVDs, its their choice. I love the fact that he's worked out that music doesn't make money any more. Its gigs and merchandise that does. Don't want a chopping board emblazoned with his name. Don't buy it. But, try not to get pissed off by it either as you walk on by.

I also don't get the hate. A great player, great pedigree, isn't an asshole to press, fans or other musicians by all accounts, he's into gear and doesn't really charge more for his gigs than anyone else.

I don't care if he's original or not. I like his music and style and his overall brand. IMO, he blew Aerosmith off the stage at Clapham.

ThePrettyDamned

Octahedron said:

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" 

I like the 12 string riff.  Reminds me of Metallica. 

Yeeeeaaaah... I said it.  

Bar that, it's not my kinda thing so I can't really comment.  He's a good player, though.

RocknRollDave

His vocals seem to be improving over time, and I think the new track shows that well.

koneguitarist

RocknRollDave said:

His vocals seem to be improving over time, and I think the new track shows that well.

Agree, this is what's been lacking for me, guitar playing is great, but when he talks, I keep picturing Barney the drunk from the Simpsons. 

Vocals are definitely improving. Still plays more than he should though.

Octahedron

I'll still keep listening until he overplays everything in the way that Santana does by harmonizing the vocal line with his guitar part start to end - as soon as I picked up on that I can't listen to "Just Feel Better" (Santana ft. Steven Tyler). Huge Aerosmith fan. Tyler kills it. Santana just shat all over it with his guitar playing. As soon as Bonamassa starts doing that, I'll stop buying his music. 

And look - he's pretty diverse right?!

What about Rock Candy Funk Party? And the albums with Beth Hart...? Plus look at the early solo albums, then compare them with "So It's Like That" and then compare those with something like Driving Toward the Daylight...

He does his thing(s) and does them well. 

I don't love everything he's ever done. And I started to get sick of the guy being everywhere all the time so I'm glad he branched out and slowed down his solo studio output a bit! 

Uhhhh and whaaaat he actually out-did Aerosmith??! Whattttt? Noooo you guys gotta be pulling my leg. Show me?!

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

His vocals seem to be improving over time, and I think the new track shows that well.

+1 and that would nearly pass for contemporary country. Very safe.

Lixarto

hubobulous said:

I also don't get the hate.

No hate here.

I don't think there are any musicians I hate (not even that ex-singer of mine).

I don't like JB's music though. He spoiled BCC as far as I'm concerned.

not_the_dj

Lixarto said:

hubobulous said:

I also don't get the hate.

No hate here.

I don't think there are any musicians I hate 

@Lixarto Not even Pete Doherty?

Lixarto

Heh

No - he's a poor excuse for a human being, but hate is an active emotion, and I don't have the energy for it.

Just another cog in an endless wheel that makes the younger generation think hard drugs are ok, or an aid to creativity (HA!).

I bear him no ill will. I do wish he'd fuck off though.

Fretwired

ThePrettyDamned said:

Octahedron said:

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" 

I like the 12 string riff.  Reminds me of Metallica. 

Yeeeeaaaah... I said it.  

Bar that, it's not my kinda thing so I can't really comment.  He's a good player, though.

The guy can play .. top blues guitarist but this song is just blues by numbers .. the sort of thing the late Gary Moore would do much better.

[Deleted User]

this is bland, same as every other album, no real content to the song and the same likes in between lyric lines.

Tedious

Kebabkid

Not really a fan but he's done some good stuff and can play. I, too, don't get the hatred and where it extends to beyond his music.

I saw him at a local blues club 6-7 years ago (Boom Boom Club in Sutton - almost a working man's club) and he sang and played his socks off, was very genial and funny and connected with the audience. From the footage I've seem of him, I don't think too much has changed since then.
Anyway, I can't dislike him as he shares his birthday with bluesman Robert Johnson and Kebab Jr

 

richardhomer

I love blues-based players. I love EC, David Gilmour, Knopfler, SRV, Robert Cray, Peter Green, et al.

What all of them (and many others) have in common, is an innate individuality that I can recognise as soon as I hear them.

JB has 'the chops' (as the Americans would say) but I can't hear 'him' in his playing. It's beautifully crafted but somehow generic.

I agree his singing has improved - and he's doubtless a lovely guy - but Gary Moore did all that stuff first - with soul.

I admire Joe's work ethic - but in a sense, that's the issue. He always sounds like someone who got there (to use the a cliche) by perspiration rather than inspiration.

Octahedron

Ouchie. Lots of Bona-bashing going on here! Bona-bashing for the 'masses, as 't'were!

Lol

"Haters gonna hate" as they say...

And "the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same thing" 

equalsql

richardhomer said:

I love blues-based players. I love EC, David Gilmour, Knopfler, SRV, Robert Cray, Peter Green, et al.

What all of them (and many others) have in common, is an innate individuality that I can recognise as soon as I hear them.

JB has 'the chops' (as the Americans would say) but I can't hear 'him' in his playing. It's beautifully crafted but somehow generic.

I agree his singing has improved - and he's doubtless a lovely guy - but Gary Moore did all that stuff first - with soul.

I admire Joe's work ethic - but in a sense, that's the issue. He always sounds like someone who got there (to use the a cliche) by perspiration rather than inspiration.

Now to me Gary Moore was never a blues player..not even close. He was a brilliant rock (and even fusion) player. 

He imitated the blues, but for me, just had no soul for it  
Blues by the numbers but the feel was all synthetic. Perhaps it was his tone..it's not something that's easy to pin down.

Give me someone like Doyle Bramhill II any day who, although not such a technician, just exudes blues..

richardhomer

equalsql;295865" said:

Now to me Gary Moore was never a blues player..not even close. He was a brilliant rock (and even fusion) player. 

He imitated the blues, but for me, just had no soul for it  

Blues by the numbers but the feel was all synthetic. Perhaps it was his tone..it's not something that's easy to pin down.

I broadly agree with you about Gary Moore - in fact I have posted similar things about him in the past.

I've tempered my view a little recently.

I went to pay homage to the Peter Green/Gary Moore Les Paul at the North West Guitar Show in May and was struck, seeing it at close quarters by just how much of a working instrument it was. I know it sounds mawkish, but it struck me as a dog which had lost its owner.

I looked Moore up on You Tube and found a superb video of him playing Need Your Love So Bad.

I was genuinely surprised at the phrasing and restraint which he displayed.

Generally I agree - his 'on the beat' phrasing and massive attack are not generally the hallmark of great blues players - Jeff Healey was another 'hi octane' not-really-a-blues-player who springs to mind.

Bonamassa is definitely in that camp.

[Deleted User]

I like him, I think he's got some real talent, the problem is his own songs are mostly forgettable (mostly - there are some real stunners) and then the rest is padded out with famous blues songs that he covers in exactly the same way as the rest of his music, which to an extent is understand as he's putting his spin on them, so they should sound like him, however as this an album of all originals, the example song I've heard sounds as if it could just be 'another' famous blues song in his style, which is play, standard issue licks in between lyric lines, fast high up the fret board solo and done.

he gets a harsh time as when he tries something different like black rock which had lots of regional sounds blended in, he gets panned, he goes back to standard issue blues, he gets panned he's in a can't win situation, but at the same time that is partly of his own making (as well as his massive success is of his own making) as he's churned out blues tracks that all sound the same for so long that when his original stuff comes along and it's played in the same style as his previous re-churning of blues tracks, it just doesn't stand out as a song at all.

RocknRollDave

Lixarto said:

I don't like JB's music though. He spoiled BCC as far as I'm concerned.

Have you heard the California Breed stuff..? I really don't like the guitarist Hughes and Bonham have gone for...but then I did actually like JB in BCC...except for the songs he wrote and sang lead on. Should have been Hughes all the way. Battle of Hadrian's Wall written by an American who'd never heard of the wall until he sat down to write the song?! Farcical.