JOE BONAMASSA-Blues Of Desperation

Provogue

Joe Bonamassa has released an avalanche of CD’s and DVD’s in the last fifteen years. The man just keeps touring and recording. Most of the time under his own banner but just as easy he makes a few records with singer Beth Hart or he participates in a band project like Black Country Communion. His latest adventure is called ‘Blues Of Desperation’, a CD that shows the many talents that Joe has. It is not a straight forward blues album as the CD title might suggest. The opening tracks ,,This Train’’ and the steady rocker ,,Mountain Climbing’’ is stuff that we almost expect. Strong rock songs with a bluesy feel and great guitar parts. But the song ,,Drive” is a different cup of tea. It is a dark, slow, smokey track with a sort of a Tex Mex feel. A composition that you might expect to hear on a Chris Isaac or Chris Rea record, but hey, Joe likes to cross musical boundaries and he does it with style on ,,Drive’’. This track is in a way ready to be used as part of a soundtrack for a Quentin Tarantino movie, if you catch my drift. The title track shows Joe’s guitar skills, as does ,,The Valley Runs Low”, ,,How Deep This River Runs” and ,,Distant Lonesome Train’’. Also interesting is ,,You Left Me Nothin’ But The Bill And The Blues’’, with again some great guitar chops. All these songs also show the progress JB has made as a vocalist the last years. The last two songs ,,Livin’ Easy” and the typical blues song ,,What I’ve Known For A Very Long Time” feature too much horn sections and trumpet for my taste, but again are tracks that feature the variety in Joe’s repertoire. All in all ‘Blues Of Desperation’ is an entertaining CD with some great guitar masturbation from the man, but I would have liked it more if JB had focussed a bit more on heavy rock and blues. There is nothing wrong with variation on a record, but this one has a bit too much.