Joe Bonamassa | Dust Bowl

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by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer —

It turns out that unoriginality and predictability sometimes have nothing to do with lack of talent or having nothing to say. The staggering revelation on Joe Bonamassa’s latest album – at least for those who are only briefly familiar with his act – is that the man’s singing is capable of channeling deepest emotions with such nuance and genuine feeling that – if practiced consistently – could have put him in the top league alongside with all the greats.

At least this is what the opening track “Slow Train” is telling us when it reveals Bonamassa’s true emotional range and an ability to go for things so far down below the surface, most singers would never dare to articulate them. Or know how to. Confronted by such a vocal whopper, you immediately forgive him the sleek gloss of the cut’s production, its standard-based songwriting, and the emotionally blank – if swaggeringly chopsy – guitar parts. As we know, you can’t have it all.

But then it turns out that not only you can’t have it all, but you can’t even hold on to what you have just been given, as it all goes downhill from here along the all-to-familiar slope of more conventional songwriting, more mechanistic, predictably phrased swanky fretboard hackery, and – sadly – no more vocals that would strike you as genuinely heartfelt. But then again, there are no laws against soliciting chart action. At least Bonamassa is going after commercial success without stooping to cheap theatricality or forced fake sentimentality.

He is also upfront about his impeccable influences – Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher, and Paul Kossoff among others. He respects them enough not to exploit them, and if he does appropriate discoveries that have cost those giants blood, sweat, and tears (and some of them – their very lives), he is not debasing the legacy, instead turning it into something a wider public can digest. The flavor of the real thing is lost in the process, but then again, in an economy oriented toward mass consumption, a lot of people would prefer instant coffee to no coffee at all, or to read the classics “abridged and simplified” rather than not to have remained an ignoramus.

Genre: Blues, Blues-rock, Country Blues, Pop Blues

Personnel:
Joe Bonamassa – guitars and vocals (all tracks), tzouras, baglama and slide bouzouki (tracks 2,5), mandolin (track 10)
Carmine Rojas – bass (tracks 1-2, 4-9, 12)
Anton Fig – drums (tracks 1-2, 4-9, 12), percussion (tracks 2,5), Hammer guitar (track 5), shaker (track 9)
Rick Melick – organ (tracks 1-2, 4-8, 12), piano, tambourine (tracks 2, 5-7, 12), synthesizers (track 14), accordion (track 5)
Peter van Weelden – spoken word (track 2)
John Hiatt – vocals (track 3)
Vince Gill – guitar (tracks 3, 11), vocals (track 11)
Michael Rhodes – bass (tracks 3, 10-11)
Chad Cromwell – drums (tracks 3, 10-11)
Steve Nathan – Hammond organ (track 3), piano (tracks 3, 11)
Tony Cedras – trumpet (track 7)
Glenn Hughes – vocals (track 8)
Arlan Schierbaum – Hammond organ (track 9)
Blondie Chaplin – guitar (track 9)
Beth Hart – vocals (track 9)
Reese Wynans – Hammond organ, piano (track 10)

Track listing:
1. Slow Train
2. Dust Bowl
3. Tennessee Plates (ft. John Hiatt)
4. The Meaning of the Blues
5. Black Lung Heartache
6. You Better Watch Yourself
7. The Laser Matador of Bayonee
8. Heartbreaker (ft. Glenn Hughes)
9. No Love on the Street
10. The Whale that Swallowed Jonah
11. Sweet Rowena (ft. Vince Gill)
12. Prisoner

Label: J&R Adventures

Online: www.jbonamassa.com

Hardrock Haven rating: 5/10