Joe Bonamassa

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Blues Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Joe Bonamassa Similar Blues Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Joe Bonamassa (born May 8, 1977) is an United States|American blues rock guitarist and singer .

Early life

Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford (town), New York|New Hartford, New York . His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician. With a great-grandfather and grandfather who both played trumpet, and a father who plays guitar, Bonamassa credits his parents with 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 (band)|Jethro Tull . Thus, he sees his music as an amalgam of all the various rock and blues he heard as a child.

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 mentor ed by Danny Gatton , he learned such styles as Country music|country and jazz as well as Polka . During this time with Gatton, Bonamassa sat in with Gatton's band whenever they played in New York City|New York . He first opened for B. B. King at 12 years of age. At 14, he was invited to attend a Fender Musical Instruments Corporation|Fender guitar event; during that trip to the West Coast of the United States|West Coast he met Berry Oakley, Jr. Bonamassa and Berry founded the group Bloodline (band)|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 Buddy Guy , Foreigner (band)|Foreigner , Robert Cray , Stephen Stills , Joe Cocker , Gregg Allman , Steve Winwood , Paul Jones (singer)|Paul Jones , Ted Nugent , Warren Haynes , Eric Clapton , Derek Trucks , and Jack Bruce .

Influences

Unlike other successful blues-rock guitarists, Bonamassa cited his influences as being British and Irish blues acts, rather than American artists. Within the blues genre, hearing the traditional blues players, as with Guitar Slim , Robert Johnson (musician)|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 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. In an interview in Guitarist (magazine)|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 (Cream album)|Goodbye by Cream (band)|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:

And in his October 2008 interview with Express & Star :

These influences are evident in his music, but Bonamassa has been influenced by other artists; notable examples include B.B. King , Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson , Danny Gatton , Eric Johnson , Albert Collins , Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Guy . Bonamassa's style of playing incorporates rock music|rock , blues-rock , Delta blues , electric blues , jazz , country - and even progressive rock|prog rock as evidenced by Yes (band)|Yes 's " Heart of the Sunrise " and the "Würm" section of " Starship Trooper (song)|Starship Trooper " being regular features of live performances.

Solo career

Bonamassa's solo début, in 2000, was his Top 10 Blues disc A New Day Yesterday (Joe Bonamassa album)|A New Day Yesterday , named after the 1969 Jethro Tull classic that Bonamassa 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 . " Miss You, Hate You " remains a cornerstone of Bonamassa's repertoire, as does " Cradle Rock ". Bonamassa followed it up in 2002 with " So, It's Like That ", which included " 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 Blues Deluxe . In the liner notes, Harris Cohen observed that Bonamassa, "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." Had To Cry Today followed in 2004.

In 2006, Bonamassa released his fifth full-length studio album, You & Me (Joe Bonamassa album)|You & Me . This album also reached #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. For the recording of this album, he enlisted Jason Bonham , while "Your Funeral And My Trial", featured harmonica player L.D. Miller, and the bassist Carmine Rojas . The title of the album was taken from the Django Reinhardt song "Vous et Moi" (1942). The violin introduction of that song was played by Reinhardt and inspired Bonamassa to write "Django", the seventh track on the album. Longer live versions would later appear on Live From Nowhere in Particular (album)|Live From Nowhere in Particular in 2009, and at the Royal Albert Hall Concert (Live DVD). For this tour, Bonamassa used former Johnny Winter Bassist Mark Epstein and former Kenny Wayne Shepherd drummer Bogie Bowles.

Sloe Gin (album)|Sloe Gin was released in August 2007, and spent several weeks at the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. Bonamassa's touring band underwent another change for this album's tour; bassist Carmine Rojas replaced Mark Epstein, and keyboardist Rick Melick was added. Both of the new band members took part in the recordings of You & Me and Sloe Gin , and toured on select dates during promotion of You & Me .

Bonamassa presented his first live show as a DJ on the UK radio station Planet Rock (radio station)|Planet Rock on November 9, 2008, playing tracks from 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 concert, Bonamassa mentioned 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. Later Bonamassa paid tribute to the Paul Jones Radio Hour on BBC Radio for playing his material on the air, then introduced Paul Jones (singer)|Paul Jones who played the harmonica on a Sonny Boy Williamson song, " Your Funeral, My Trial ."

In March 2010, Bonamassa released his tenth full-length solo album Black Rock (Joe Bonamassa Album)|Black Rock , Mascotrecords.com which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts and #38 on the Billboard 200 .

In May 2010, Ian Anderson (musician)|Ian Anderson guested at his concert at London's Hammersmith Apollo , and they played "A New Day Yesterday" along with " Locomotive Breath ". At the end of 2010, Bowles announced his departure and Tal Bergman took over as touring drummer.

The Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes , Jason Bonham , Derek Sherinian supergroup (music)|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.

In March 2011, Bonamassa released his eleventh full-length solo album, Dust Bowl (album)|Dust Bowl , followed in September of the same year by a collaboration with Beth Hart called " Don't Explain (Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart album)|Don't Explain ".

Discography

;Solo studio albums

A New Day Yesterday (Joe Bonamassa album)|A New Day Yesterday (2000)

'' So, It's Like That (2002)

Blues Deluxe (2003)

Had to Cry Today (album)|Had to Cry Today (2004)

You & Me (Joe Bonamassa album)|You & Me (2006)

Sloe Gin (album)|Sloe Gin (2007)

The Ballad of John Henry (album)|The Ballad of John Henry (2009)

Black Rock (Joe Bonamassa Album)|Black Rock (2010)

Dust Bowl (album)|Dust Bowl (2011)

;Collaboration albums

'' Don't Explain (Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart album)|Don't Explain (2011) (with Beth Hart )

; Black Country Communion albums

Black Country (album)|Black Country (2010)

2 (Black Country Communion album)|2 (2011)

;Guest appearances

Joe Lynn Turner – Holy Man (album)|Holy Man (2000)

Joe Lynn Turner – JLT (2003)

Walter Trout|Walter Trout and the Radicals – Full Circle (2006)

Carl Verheyen|Carl Verheyen Band – Trading 8s (2009)

Shannon Curfman – '' What You're Getting Into (2010)

Sandi Thom – Merchants and Thieves (2010)

Healing Sixes – Blue Jay (2010)

Lee Ritenour – 6 String Theory (2010)

Henrik Freischlader – Still Frame Replay (2011)

Don Airey – All Out (2011)

Derek Sherinian – Oceana (album)|Oceana (2011)

Leslie West – Unusual Suspects (2011)

Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat - Tijuana Bible (2009)

DVDs

Live at the Rockpalast was released in 2005, and recorded at the Burg Satzvey in Mechernich, Germany.

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.

Bonamassa's performance with pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph , Randolph's Family Band and Pino Daniele at the 2010 edition of Crossroads Guitar Festival appears on the Crossroads 2010 DVD. The song they played is Going Down .

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Joe Bonamassa

Joe Bonamassa Photo by: www.whbpac.org


1. Rory Gallagher

Blues Music Artists