It's begging season for PBS, and they're featuring his latest thing. I know the guy is talented, but why am I so put off by him? Could it be that he's second billing only to his extremely large and expensive guitar collection? What's that all about?
It's begging season for PBS, and they're featuring his latest thing. I know the guy is talented, but why am I so put off by him? Could it be that he's second billing only to his extremely large and expensive guitar collection? What's that all about?
From a recent thread on Joe:
He is to late 60s/70s blues rock what Mayer Hawthorne is to soul music.....Originally Posted by mogrooves
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
The guy's been playing guitar in bands since he was, what 12 or 13 years old? He's still a young man in his early 30s, or something. His profile has gotten pretty big in the last 3-5 years and he has a huge following. Maybe he's starting to toughen up a but, or maybe his ego is being stroked too much these days. I personally like the guy. I mean from the few interviews I've seen him do he seems like a cool dude, and I think he is a very talented guitarist. I don't have any of his album but just the stuff he did with Black Country Communion is enough for me.I know the guy is talented, but why am I so put off by him?
I asked pretty much the same in my thread about him. I agree with mogrooves.
LOL! I had to google Mayer Hawthorne, and now it all makes sense. I was gonna say that guy who used to dress up like Zorro, but whatever.
Seriously though, I think what bothers me about Bonamassa is that he came out of nowhere, managed to hook up with the right folks, perhaps partially due to his family's business, and pretty much by-passed the trials and tribulations of the average blues guy. I'm doubting that the dude ever really had to "pay his dues" per se, much less having his van break down in the desert or his guitars stolen before a gig, or something else like that. Certainly the same thing can be said for someone like Jason Bonham, but I can also imagine how much quality father/son time Jason was robbed of because dad was either on the road or couldn't keep the bottle out of his mouth, or both. By comparison, Bonamassa seems to have had a very comfortable upbringing, and that's fine, but you can't really play the blues if you never had them. At least that's they say. He can replicate what others have done, and he seems to be able to do that very well. More than half of his output are covers. He's made a career of playing his own personal mix-tape. Not sure, but I don't think he's ever had a real hit from one of his own compositions, but if he can't do that, then his shelf life is limited regardless of how many guitars he owns or displays.
I am not sure that I agree with your assessment. Yea, his father was a guitar player, but not a famous one that I know of. The comparison to Bonham does not seem that valid to me. Joe started playing at a very young age and was a bit of a prodigy right from the beginning. He has toured his ass off since he was in his teens. Yea, he was able to have Danny Gatton as a mentor early on which certainly helped his career, but he has gotten his success the old fashioned way by touring, touring, touring slowly building up an audience over the last decade or so. He has also had the advantage of having really good management that has steered his career in the right directions over the years. Is it calculated? Yea, maybe it is, but like it or not music is still a business and Joe has managed to avoid the pitfalls that many of his peers fall into. Regarding his shelf life, Bonamassa has become probably the most successful under 40 blues guitarist in the world right now. He has eclipsed his peers Kenny Wayne Sheppard and Johnny Lang by again building up an audience from the ground up. Sheppard and Lang both had radio hits, which have so far eluded Bonamassa, and they may have had more initial success at the beginning, but today Bonamassa is playing (and selling out) big theaters (arenas in Europe) while Sheppard and Lang are back playing the club circuit. I think Bonamassa has a lot more chance as staying power than most of his contemporaries. To each their own I guess, but I own all of Bonamassa’s albums, have seen him live and he just pushes the right buttons for me. Is he original? Nah, not really, but what is original in blues that has not already been done before?
Steve Sly
His contemporaries? All two of them?
What I mean by that is Lang and Sheppard are about the same age as Bonamassa and they all came on the scene at about the same time. Of course there are more than just those two, but they had the most success and had the highest profile. It took Bonamassa longer to aquire an audience, but in the long run I think he has the more solid career. Just my opinion of course..
Steve Sly
Steve Sly
I read an interview with Joe where he gave a lot of credit to Ian Anderson for helping out when he opened for Tull. Ian would watch their sets and give plenty of advice. That's why Joe covers A New Day Yesterday in his shows, as a nod to Ian.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Well, what bothers you is devoid of any reality. This guy has been working solo and touring hard for well over a decade. He played in Bloodline for about six years before that. I first saw him about ten years ago, while he was playing small clubs, which he did for far for too many years. His broad success was long overdue.
Bloodline comprised drummer Erin Davis (son of Miles Davis), rhythm guitarist Waylon Krieger (son of Robby Krieger), and bassist and lead vocalist Berry Oakley, Jr. (son of Berry Oakley). Bonamassa first played with BB King at age 12.
Granted, he's not breaking any new ground and would likely be the first to admit it. (But, then again, either did SRV.) But he does mix things up quite well, as evidenced by what he has played over the years (a lot of which wasn't blues), including demonstrating prog influences.
He has also worked with some heavyweights, including Jon Lord, Leslie West, Don Airey, and many others.
I agree that you have to live the blues in order to really play it. He does lack some soul. But the dude can certainly play and sing. And he does write a lot of material.
I completely disagree with Banquo when he says Joe Bonamassa came out of nowhere, he has worked very hard to get to where he is today. First time I saw him was at a dive bar in a town called Sandwich, Illinois , about 10 years ago. And as was already said, he played in the band Bloodline when he was like 14 or 15, they made a pretty good album for a bunch of kids that I still listen to on occasion.
The guy paid his dues not only by churning out albums but he was always on the road. He deserves all of the acclaim that is coming his way these days, nobody handed him anything.
And while he is not a prolific songwriter like say a Warren Haynes he does contribute in that department on every single album, as a matter of fact he wrote or co-wrote 12 of the 13 songs on his second cd, "So It's Like That". He does play other people tunes but also plays plenty of his own.
Well, it's all fine and good. I just personally find him to be generic compared to his own guitar heroes and even to some of his "contemporaries" (Derek Trucks especially comes to mind). Even John Mayer is more well rounded, imo.
I don't think anyone here ever touted him as being as original as his heroes. Derek Trucks is in a class all his own and much more eclectic. But, Bonamassa is not just a blues rock player. Although, he's been mostly in that mode for a while. He has done some really great mainstream material. I would love to see him go more proggy. He certainly lieks prog.
Well Derek is a god. Too bad his eclecticism went out the window when he recorded with his wife.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
That's your opinion, and the are entitled to it. But you ought to know a little bit more about somebody before you start tossing around things like "he came out of nowhere" & that because of the family business, which really amounts to no more that his father owning a guitar shop in upstate New York, that he has some kind of special favors done for him.
Joe did pay his dues,as much or more than most of the young guitar players who came around in the last 10-15 years. He was on the bar and tavern (and occasional strip club) circuit for years before getting to where he is today.
And now here is my opinion, a guy you mentioned, John Mayer, fits the silver spoon in his mouth tag much more than Bonamassa. Joe is in another league than John Mayer as a guitar player, not even close. Now Derek Trucks , he is one great guitar player.
All I know is that I had never heard of him til I read an article about him in a local paper before his performance at our Riverbend Festival in June 2008. Wasn't into blues guitarists much, but read somewhere in the article he had done covers of Tull and Yes' Starship Trooper in concert. So I said what the hey, got there early, and with the black clouds rolling in Joe came out and commanded the crowd with a mesmerizing hard-edged blues that had me hooked from note one. And when He was singing the line "And I'm standing here in the rain", belting it out with incredible passion, flicking the rain drops of the strings of his Les Paul 10 feet in front of me-A magical moment that I'll never forget! i saw him twice soon after that. Whether or not hes paid his dues or really lived the blues-I don't know and I don't care-the guy can PLAY and SING his heart out, and I'm enteratined!
Hey - clearly you're in love with the guy, but I still think he's overrated. I doubt that either one of us are gonna change our minds anytime soon.
I bought a Trucks album and it did nothing for me. He is a great talent, but the album did not push my buttons. Mayer I have always found annoying. Never got into him at all.
Steve Sly
In love with Joe B.? No , I do think he is a very good guitarist though. Whether you like him or not makes no difference to me , I'm not trying to convert you.
The point I was trying to make was that he didn't just come out of nowhere, he worked hard to get to where he is.
I've been a fan for more than ten years and, up until a couple years ago, I couldn't understand why this guy was not getting airplay. He was winning guitar awards all that time, and working with some heavy-hitters, but just wasn't getting his breaks.
Now he has to be careful not to get pigeon-holed and stereotyped. I'd like to see him mix things up on his next release.
Well, you certainly are passionate.
Bought the "sir henry" album. My impressions is that he is a fine player but that the songwriting was just avarage standard "modern" blues. Not an album i'll be spinning often.
And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.
Well, you certainly are passionate.
What I am passionate about is when I talk about an artist I like to have my facts straight, unlike yourself when you made this statement.
"Seriously though, I think what bothers me about Bonamassa is that he came out of nowhere, managed to hook up with the right folks, perhaps partially due to his family's business, and pretty much by-passed the trials and tribulations of the average blues guy. I'm doubting that the dude ever really had to "pay his dues" per se,"
A totally erroneous comment by you.As I said, if you don't like the guy fine, but when you spew out incorrect information like you did at least admit that you got it wrong when somebody shares the facts with you, instead of baiting me with things like me being in "love" with Joe and then saying how "passionate" I am about him.
Actually I have had some problems with him myself, I made a comment in a thread about Bonamassa a while back, saying that he is not much of a songwriter, it was a person who has contributed to this thread (SteveSly) who kind of set me straight on that , when I looked closer I saw that Joe did indeed write more original material than I thought he did. I still wouldn't consider him prolific as a songwriter but he does write more than I gave him credit for. Another issue I have with him is that I think he needs to take a break and not release a new album every year. But his true passionate fan base just can't get enough of him so who am I to say?
No, not here, he isn't.
I get bored with all the tiresome Bonamassa bashing that goes on. Nobody here is trying to say he's the blues-rock 21st century equivalent of Jesus, Einstein, Bach, Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci rolled into one. For crying out loud!
As for me, I like his playing a lot, and have enjoyed some (though not all) of the albums I've bought. No need to put him on a pedestal or tear him down. He's a talented guitarist, a tireless worker, an engaging performer, and I hear plenty of passion in his delivery. I don't listen to him for originality, no more than I listen to Purcell, Mozart or Mahler to see what new things they're coming up with.
First of all, you seem to take a lot of things literally. If you think I'm "baiting" you, then I must be doing a helluva job. My comment about JB "coming out of nowhere" was merely an expression based on the fact that he didn't really have a backgound of being in a band or having a recording history outside of Bloodline, which to me wasn't anything. Nothing impresses me less than the thought of unknown sons of great musicians forming a psuedo-supergroup. That's just some promoters' wet dream. As for how he got to where he is now, then I'm sure it took a lot of work. Nobody's questioning that. But not every kid gets to grow up in a guitar store or gets mentored by Danny Gatton or gets to jam with B.B. King. So, obviously he had the advantages that maybe someone just as talented or driven would never have. And that's fine too, but sooner or later the guy has to play down the prodigy thing and create his own niche. He's a damn good guitarist. Everybody agrees with that. A songwriter, not so much. He's desireable as a journeyman, hired gun, but he can't be a leader in a band where his mates have more credentials unless he owns the name, of course. So if things go awry, maybe he'll just take his ball and go home. Perhaps the right thing to do is what he's doing now on PBS with 21 people taking care of the 25 guitars that he surrounds himself with on stage, but I'll take one alcoholic Irishman with one beat-up Strat every time.
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