Joe Bonamassa – British blues explosion Live

6/10

Joe Bonamassa is a white boy virtuoso as a blues guitarist, who has now been in the music business for more than a quarter of a century, with a whole lot of albums on the top of the Billboard chart.
He has been collaborating in one way or another, with pretty much everybody who is anybody in this music business. He is very diversified as an artist as well. He is the permanent guitarist in the metal band ”Black Country Communion” and has had a collaboration with Beth Hart for about a handful of albums.

As the title of the record indicates,this double live recording contains a whole lot of old English blues and metal hits from late sixties, until the middle of the seventies. Artists and bands who Mr Bonamassa choose to pay tribute to, are the biggest names England could offer at the time, such as Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck and Cream, just to mention a few. I am usually not a big fan of cover albums in general, but this one serves a purpose for the younger generation to be educated about the fantastic world of what was called ”The British Blues Explosion”, because you can bet there is a lot of quality music to be discovered if you just scratch a little bit on the surface. Like I said before, I am not a big fan of cover records. They are usually more fun for the artist to play the hits from their youth, than it is for us fans to listen to, but I think Mr Bonamassa got away with it here. It is not the biggest hits of it’s time, and he has given them a good Bonamassaesque treatment that makes them stand out. A perfect example are Led Zeppelins ”Boogie with Stu” or Creams ”SWLABR”or my favourite, the perfect old gem of Jeff Becks ”Plynth (Water down the drain)”, a song that Mr Bonamassa in my opinion makes better than the original.

Are there any downside to this album? Yes it is. In my opinion a double album is a bit too much for me to chew. I have a tendency to loose my focus after a couple of songs. After a few songs the music just do not grab hold of me.With that said, this is a fine double cd with covers. I am pretty sure that everyone who love Joe Bonamassa will definitely not be disappointed!

Artist: Joe Bonamassa
Titel: British Blues Explosion Live
Label: Provouge
Release date: 2018-05-18
Rate: 6/10
Standout track: ”Plynth (Water down the drain)