Joe Bonamassa (born May 8, 1977 in Utica, New York) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer.Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Influences 3 Solo career 4 Discography 5 DVDs 6 References 7 External links
[edit] Early life
Bonamassa was born and raised in Utica, New York to parents that owned and ran a guitar shop. As a fourth-generation musician, he recalls knowing he wanted to be a musician as early as age four. With a great-grandfather and grandfather who both played trumpet, and a father who plays guitar, Bonamassa credits his parents in fostering an appreciation of music in his life as early as he can remember. When he was a young child, he would listen to his parents' large record collection. He recalls at age 7, sitting with his parents on Saturdays and listening to Guitar Slim, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Eric Clapton, and Jethro Tull. Thus, he sees his music as an amalgam of all the various rock and blues he heard as a child.[1]
He received his first guitar from his father at the age of 4, and by age 7 he was playing Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix tunes note for note. At the age of 11, during a short period of being mentored by Danny Gatton, he learned such styles as country and jazz as well as heavy rock. During this time with Gatton, Bonamassa sat in with Gatton's band whenever they played in New York. He first opened for B. B. King at 12 years of age. After first hearing him play, King said, “This kid's potential is unbelievable. He hasn't even begun to scratch the surface. He's one of a kind.” At 14, he was invited to attend a Fender guitar event; during that trip to the West Coast he met Berry Oakley, Jr. Bonamassa and Berry founded the group Bloodline with Miles Davis's son Erin and Robby Krieger's son Waylon. They released one album which produced two chart singles — "Stone Cold Hearted", and "Dixie Peach." He has since played with other music greats including Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Robert Cray, Stephen Stills, Joe Cocker, Gregg Allman, Steve Winwood, Paul Jones, Ted Nugent, Warren Haynes, Eric Clapton, and Derek Trucks. [edit] Influences
Unlike other successful blues-rock guitarists, Bonamassa has cited his influences as being British and Irish blues acts, rather than American acts. Within the blues genre, hearing the traditional blues players, as with Guitar Slim, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and all the traditional American blues players, (with the exception of B.B. King), comparing the music in the United States to the "European" versions of the blues, Bonamassa found the English blues, fostered by notable musicians such as the Jeff Beck Group, Eric Clapton, and the Irish blues player Rory Gallagher to be far more interesting to him than the original Delta blues players.[1] In an interview in Guitarist magazine (issue 265), he cited the three albums that had the biggest influence on his playing: John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (the Beano album), Rory Gallagher's Irish Tour and Goodbye by Cream. He also stated that Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood was a big influence at a young age.
He elaborated further on his influences in his interview: "You know, my heroes were the English guys – Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Eric Clapton. There’s so many - there’s Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher – another Irishman who played the same things, but don’t tell him that. But those guys were my guys – Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page. There’s a certain sophistication to their approach to the blues that I really like, more so than the American blues that I was listening to. B. B. King’s a big influence – he’s probably my biggest traditional influence. I love Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker and stuff like that, but I couldn’t sit down… I was always forcing myself to listen to whole records by them, where I’d rather listen to Humble Pie do "I'm Ready" than Muddy Waters, you know? I think, the English interpretation of the blues just hit me a lot better, you know?"
And in his October 2008 interview with Express & Star: “When I heard Kossoff playing "Mr. Big" and when I heard Clapton playing "Crossroads" and when I heard Rory Gallagher playing "Cradle Rock", I was like, 'This is way cooler'.... "British blues are my thing. When I heard Rod Stewart and the Jeff Beck Group singing "Let Me Love You", it changed my life. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Those are my influences".
These influences are evident in his music, but Bonamassa has been influenced by other artists; notable examples include B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Danny Gatton, Eric Johnson, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Guy. Bonamassa's style of playing incorporates the wide range of genres these influences cover: rock, blues-rock, Delta blues, electric blues, jazz, country - and even prog rock as evidenced by Yes's "Heart of the Sunrise" and the "Würm" section of "Starship Trooper" being regular features of live performances. [edit] Solo career
Bonamassa’s solo début, in 2000, was his Top 10 Blues disc A New Day Yesterday, named after the 1969 Jethro Tull classic that Joe makes his own with what allmusic.com called “a jaw-dropping performance”. Produced by the late, legendary Tom Dowd, the album featured guest shots by Gregg Allman, Rick Derringer and Leslie West, among other greats. The powerhouse original song “Miss You, Hate You” remains a cornerstone of Joe’s repertoire, as does the slide guitar showcase “Cradle Rock”. Bonamassa followed it up in 2002 with "So, It's Like That", a brew of dead-on blues and classic pop-rock production featuring all originals, including the tour de force “Pain And Sorrow”. The album was his first to hit #1 on Billboard’s Blues chart.
In 2003 – designated “Year Of The Blues” by Congress – Bonamassa returned with his heartfelt tribute to the genre, "Blues Deluxe", packed with nine classics and three originals. In the liner notes, Harris Cohen observed that Joe, “never loses touch with the raw emotion that makes the blues what it is.” Reviewing "Blues Deluxe", former Creem editor Jaan Uhelszki’ added, “New York guitar phenom walks tall in the blues tradition…jettisoning fiery riffs inspired by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elmore James, and Albert Collins into the future with furious playing, a hard-rock sensibility, and a grizzled voice that owes a debt to Gregg Allman. Equally inspired by the Delta blues and the mid-'60s British blues boom, the young firebrand … is able to fuse those two schools together, creating edgy blues rock.” Bonamassa further honed that fusion on ’04’s "Had To Cry Today", another sweat-soaked mix of sound made electrifying through his gale force playing.
Bonamassa's 2006 studio album, You & Me appeared at #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. He released his Sloe Gin album, in August 2007, and by March 2008 the album had spent more than 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. He played at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 4, 2009. Tickets for the concert sold out in less than a week, despite going on sale four months ahead of the performance.
In 2006, Bonamassa released his fifth full-length studio album, You & Me. This album also appeared at #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. For the recording of this album, he enlisted the talents of multiple studio musicians such as Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham. "Your Funeral And My Trial", a track on the album, featured harmonica prodigy L.D. Miller,and bassist Carmine Rojas (Rod Stewart, David Bowie). You & Me is Bonamassa's heaviest blues album, breaking away from the heavier rock styles featured in So, It's Like That, and Had to Cry Today. The title of the album was taken from the Django Reinhardt song "Vous et Moi" (You and Me - 1942). The violin intro of that song was actually played by Reinhardt and inspired Bonamassa to write "Django", the 7th track on the album. Longer live versions would later appear on Live From Nowhere in Particular in 2009, and at the May 4th Royal Albert Hall Concert (Live DVD).
Sloe Gin was released in August 2007, and, as of March 2008, had spent more than 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. This album features much more acoustic guitar work than any of Bonamassa's previous albums. Bonamassa's touring band underwent another change for this album's tour; bassist Carmine Rojas replaced Epstein and keyboardist Rick Melick was added. Both of the new band members took part in the recordings of You & Me and Sloe Gin.
Bonamassa presented his first live show as DJ on UK radio station Planet Rock on Sunday November 9, 2008, playing tracks from the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher and Eric Clapton.
In November 2008 Bonamassa announced he would be playing at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 4, 2009. Tickets for the concert sold out in less than a week. Bonamassa described the event to the Express & Star as "the complete culmination of 20 years of work for me."
At the Royal Albert Hall gig 4 May 2009, Bonamassa stated that the first song that he learned to play was "Further on Up the Road" and he then introduced Eric Clapton and together they performed the song, which Joe had been featuring on his current tour. Later in the gig, Joe paid tribute to the 'Paul Jones Radio Hour' on BBC Radio for playing his material on the air, then introduced Paul Jones (ex Manfred Mann & Blues Band) who played blues harp/harmonica on a Sonny Boy Williamson song called "Your Funeral, My Trial." Joe thanked the audience for "being a part of the best day of his life."
It was announced by UK radio station, Planet Rock on 14 January 2010 that Bonamassa was forming a new band with Jason Bonham and Glenn Hughes, to be known as Black Country. An album is planned for release later in the year.
In March 2010, Bonamassa released his tenth full-length solo album Black Rock[2] which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts and #38 on the Billboard Top 200.
In May 2010 he asked Ian Anderson to guest at his concert in London, and they played "A New Day Yesterday" along with "Locomotive Breath". Joe stated that the concert was the largest audience he had played for to date. The audience number was 5,200.
The Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian supergroup is now called Black Country Communion. The band were forced to add 'Communion' to their original name Black Country after another band with the same name raised an objection. [edit] Discography Studio albums 1994 – Bloodline 2000 – A New Day Yesterday 2002 – So, It's Like That 2002 – A New Day Yesterday, Live 2003 – Blues Deluxe 2004 – Had to Cry Today 2006 – You & Me 2007 – Sloe Gin UK #50[3] 2008 – Live From Nowhere in Particular[4] UK #45[5] 2009 - The Ballad of John Henry U.S. #103,[6] UK #26 2010 - Black Rock[2] U.S. #39, UK #14, GER: #22 Guest appearancesYear Artist Album Song 2010 Shannon Curfman What You're Getting Into "The Core" 2010 Sandi Thom Merchants and Thieves "This Ol' World"
[edit] DVDs
Live at the Rockpalast was released in 2005, and recorded at the Burg Satzvey in Mechernich, Germany.[7] It is one of the last concerts Bonamassa performed with his original band.
A live DVD titled A New Day Yesterday, Live was given away for a short period of time with So, It's Like That. This concert was later re-released as a full CD and DVD.
An instructional DVD, Signature Sounds, Styles and Techniques, was released in 2006.
A live DVD, Joe Bonamassa: Live From Royal Albert Hall was released in September 2009.
