Joe Bonamass Releases, Different Shades of Blue on J&R, Sept 22, 2014

One cannot certainly deny two things about Joe Bonamassa: he is one of the most talented guitarists around and one of the hardest working bluesmen ever.

Different Shades Of Blue is an all-original record of 11 tracks co-written with a team of veteran Nashville songwriters, except for the opening track "Hey Baby," an obscure Hendrix cover. Superbly produced, as always, by Kevin Shirley, the album title maintains exactly the promises made by its title. Bonamassa manages successfully to experiment even further his tried-and-tested formula based on solid blues-rock, in tracks such as the powerful centrepiece of the record "Oh Beautiful," which is a crossover between a Delta Blues lament and a psychedelic-rock anthem.

 

Different Shades offers the listeners the chance to explore all the different blues trajectories masterfully crafted by Bonamassa. The record itself is possibly the biggest attempt made by the American guitarist to conquer on a worldwide scale the music charts, thanks to his incredible ability to re-define the blues through all the Different Shades the record promises to deliver.

Those who love a true Big Band Orchestra tune, will be surely captivated by the combustion created by Bonamassa on tracks like "I Gave Up Everything For You 'cept The Blues" or "Trouble Town," in which the craftmanship of the hugely talented musicians playing on the record shine through the whole duration of the tracks. Lovers of a more contemporary style will play over and over again the album title-track and "So, What Would I Do," both perfect examples of blues-rock slow songs in which Bonamassa's voice as a singer reaches its absolute peak.

Joe Bonamassa has been working really hard on this record and that can be easily perceived on each track and the gamble of offering an album with so many variations on the blues genre certainly paid off. Maybe not his absolute masterpiece overall in his great career, but certainly a powerful work that leads one to believe that Bonamassa's new interpretations of blues-rock will continue very successfully for many years to come.

Gio Pilato

 

gioAbout Our Author: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato is Italian music writer, who has been living in UK since 2002. With an enormous passion for music, and life in general, his interest in the communications began at 11 years old. He worked briefly for local radios in his youth and did a one-off radio show on 2007 on the glorious BBC 6 Music Radio station. Gio started his freelance journalist career in 2012, with Italian artists, and is now mainly focusing on blues artists. To follow Gio Pilato and his all cool radio show, Visit: (RTL 102.5 Cool (Webradio)): http://www.rtl.it/Cool