By Martine Ehrenclou
Guitar virtuoso, singer-songwriter, Joe Bonamassa, performed two unique all-acoustic shows (with a nine-piece band) at Carnegie Hall in New York City that were filmed and recorded. New arrangements of Bonamassa’s favorite songs as well as brand new songs fill this double album, two-disc DVD, single Blu-ray, double CD, that was released June 23, 2017.
Listen free to Joe Bonamassa – Live at Carnegie Hall - An Acoustic Evening (This Train (Live), Drive (Live) and more). 15 tracks (). Discover more music, concerts, videos, and pictures with the largest catalogue online at Last.fm.
The concert was part of an all-acoustic tour and features an all-star ensemble of world class musicians including Cellist Tina Guo, percussionist, Hossam Ramzy, Anton Fig on drums, Eric Bazilian on mandolin, saxophone, acoustic guitar, vocals, and banjo, Reese Wynans on piano and Australian backup vocalists, Mahalia Barnes, Juanita Tippins, and Gary Pinto.
Live at Carnegie Hall is a stripped down, all-acoustic show with 15 tracks that appropriately kicks off with the energetic, percussive song, “This Train.” Joe Bonamassa fans might recognize this tune from his album, Blues of Desperation. The piano intro is lovely, and one that might be familiar to some as it is from Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath.” Brilliantly played by Wynans, the intro sets the stage for Bonamassa’s guitar riffs and up-tempo rhythm. The song’s new arrangement has a big sound that includes violin, cello, percussion and backup singers. It has more of a zippy feel than Bonamassa’s previous versions and is country-ish as are a few of the songs on this live, double album.
The next tune, “Drive,” features wind instruments and again the acoustic piano adds a lovely, lyrical overtone. Bonamassa’s acoustic guitar on this track is the star of the show and will certainly satisfy Joe B. fans. The wind instruments and back up singers add an ethereal touch. The big production is felt throughout this song and on much of the album.
“The Valley Runs Low” is a standout track. Joe B.’s acoustic guitar graces the opening of this song and gives way to mandolin, cello and piano. Bonamassa’s voice is honed and textured on this tune. It has a lovely melody and the backup singers compliment the chorus.
Joe Bonamassa has secured his place in the singer-songwriter territory and this song certainly showcases his talent for both, something I hadn’t fully grasped because I’d been so focused on his guitar playing, which is without question, masterful. Always.
“Driving Towards the Daylight” is one of my favorites. Acoustic guitar, piano, and banjo start the tune and Joe B.’s vocals are at their best here. His voice, on a number of songs, has become more more soulful with time. With Bonamassa’s guitar, the piano and hint of banjo, this mournful tune is beautiful and produces a lush and moving sound.
However, it’s almost as if the room or perhaps the nine-piece band in that room, overcomes Bonamassa at times. On many of the tracks, it seems as though Joe B. is a part of the band, instead of featured player. Perhaps that was his intention. But for me, there are just too many competing instruments. Even when Bonamassa sings, the band is often in partnership with him instead of as supporting players. My guess is that he wanted the entire band and the sound experience of being inside Carnegie Hall to be the take away.
The seventh song, “Blue and Evil,” from the album, Black Rock, is an up-tempo, acoustic blues number that features Joe B. on guitar and Bazilian on banjo. A foot stomping beat with a darker tone, the backup singers give it a dissonant touch. Like others on the album, this too has a Delta Blues feel.
“Get Back My Tomorrow” invites listeners into Carnegie Hall with the audience clapping to the beat. I can’t help but imagine what it must have been like to see Joe B. live in this venue.
“Mountain Time” opens disc two and builds the energy again with beautifully nuanced piano played by Wynans and a stringed instrument interchange. Bonamassa’s vocals are some of his best, which draws a big response from the audience.
One of my favorite songs, “Hummingbird,” written by the late Leon Russell, is a lovely rendition. In all of the versions of this song, Bonamassa sings it like he means it.
Live at Carnegie Hall is an ambitious undertaking, one that propels Joe Bonamassa into some new terrain. With the volume of material Bonamassa has produced (12 previous albums,) this work has its own unique character and sets him apart from a number of other blues-rock artists.
Live at Carnegie Hall can be found:
Website:https://shop.jbonamassa.com/collections/live-at-carnegie-hall-an-acoustic-evening
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/JoeBonamassa/
Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/7u9j0ykp9ZdC8DBf44B6bb
For no good reason, a lot of people just don’t like Joe Bonamassa; for many good reasons, there are more people that do like the popular blues-rock guitarist. Haters gonna hate, I suppose, ‘cause there’s really quite a lot about Bonamassa’s career to admire. Young Joey B. was mentored by the late, great Danny Gatton and opened for the legendary B.B. King when he was only 13 years old. After a short-lived mid-‘90s stint with the blues-rock ‘supergroup’ Bloodline with the sons of Miles Davis, Berry Oakley (Allman Brothers Band), and Robby Krieger (The Doors), Bonamassa launched his career as a solo artist with the underrated major label album A New Day Yesterday in 2000.In the seventeen years since, Bonamassa has established an extremely successful cottage industry that includes his own independent record label (J&R Adventures), which has released roughly three-dozen Bonamassa live and studio albums and concert videos as well as collaborations with singer Beth Hart and L.A. friends Rock Candy Funk Party. He’s part of the classic rock supergroup Black Country Communion with Glenn Hughes, Derek Sherinian, and Jason Bonham, and he’s played on stage with giants like Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, and Warren Haynes, among others – none of which are likely to share the spotlight with just any old scrub. Bonamassa has lent his talents to recordings by a dozen or more artists, and he founded the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation to fund scholarships and music education resources to young musicians-to-be.
Joe Bonamassa’s Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening
Yeah, Bonamassa is merchandised to the hilt, and any old cheesy product you can dream up, you can probably buy it with JB’s logo or cartoon visage inked on the surface somewhere. But Joey B. also delivers value for his fans’ money with deluxe album and video packages, and he and his long-time manager Roy Weisman (along with producer Kevin Shirley, the third part of this mega-million trio) don’t skimp on filming concerts for video release, ponying up the bucks to provide the best multi-camera product possible. I suspect that it’s his ubiquitous success that has so many people denying Bonamassa the respect he so richly deserves, success that he’s earned onstage a couple hundred nights a year for a couple of decades now.
Bonamassa is neither a great singer nor songwriter, though he’s taken huge steps in improving his skills in both areas and, truthfully, he’s better at both than many of his contemporaries. He’s a traditionally-styled blues guitarist with great chops who typically stays in the groove but every now and then takes an inspired, imaginative flight of instrumental fancy. More to the point, Bonamassa is an adventurer, a capital ‘A’ Artist who continues to grow, evolve, and challenge himself in ways that few blues or rock musicians attempt these days. Case in point, Bonamassa’s recently-released Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening set, two discs capturing a sublime performance at yet another historic venue that JB can cross off his bucket list (along with Royal Albert Hall, the Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, and the Vienna Opera House).
Driving Towards the Daylight
It’s not the first time that the guitarist has waxed acoustic (there are at least a half-dozen other albums in Bonamassa’s rapidly-growing catalog that have been created sans electricity), nor is it the first time he’s taken to a legendary stage. It’s his efforts to re-contextualize his songs, to place them in a different light that is so admirable from an artistic perspective. More than merely performing his trademark electric blues with a beat-up old Martin guitar, Bonamassa re-imagines the material, sometimes in vastly different ways. To join him on the Carnegie Hall stage, the guitarist enlisted a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of talented musicians like cellist Tina Guo (China), percussionist Hossam Ramzy (Egypt), and singers Gary Pinto, Juanita Tippins, and Mahalia Barnes (Australia) alongside longtime musical foils like pianist Reese Wynans and drummer Anton Fig along with multi-instrumentalist Eric Bazilian (The Hooters).
Joe Banasamma Live At Carnegie Hall
Although Bonamassa is center-stage here, he frequently shares the spotlight in service of the performance, especially with Bazilian’s nimble mandolin and Guo, who often looks like a woman possessed with her furious style of play. By fleshing out his original songs with unusual acoustic instrumentation alongside his nuanced fretwork, Bonamassa alchemically transforms songs like “This Train” – from his 2015 album Blues of Desperation – into entirely new works. With Wynans’ piano intro nicking a few licks from an old Jethro Tull song, “This Train” crystalizes into a country-flavored rustic rave-up with Guo’s cello sounding like a fiddle, Wynans’ honky-tonk piano-pounding accompanied by a choogling rhythm on top of which Bonamassa adds a bit of chicken pickin’ and the background singers sound like a church choir.How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
| Joe Bonamassa photo by Robert Knight, Jr. |
The Black Country Communion tune “Song of Yesterday,” off the band’s 2010 self-titled debut, is shed of its classic rock bombast but made all the more powerful by the song’s sparse arrangement, which increases the ambient claustrophobia and allows the backing harmonies to shine above Guo’s melancholy cello and Bonamassa’s darkly elegant fretwork. A cover of the late Leon Russell’s classic “Hummingbird” benefits from Wynans’ skilled piano-play and while Bonamassa’s vox will never be mistaken for Russell’s soulful grittiness, he acquits himself well, providing an emotional foundation for the instrumentalists to build on. Better yet is the album-closing cover of Bette Midler’s hit “The Rose,” which provides a showcase for Bonamassa’s underrated vocals alongside Wynans’ lovely piano accompaniment with crescendos of gorgeous instrumentation and Barnes’ soul-drenched backing vocals.
Joe Bonamassa Live At Carnegie Hall
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Joe Bonamassa has built a large (and still-growing) worldwide audience precisely because of artistic gambles like Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening. It takes an artist willing to subsume their ego and share the spotlight with equally-talented instrumentalists to make great music, and in an effort to satisfy his wandering muse, Bonamassa is willing to risk alienating his fans to continue challenging himself by exploring different facets of his art. That so many people come along for the ride is a testament not only to Bonamassa’s skills but also to the honesty and reverence with which his music is imbued.
Inspired by guitarists like Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher, Joey B. never strays far from the blues-rock sounds he grew up with. But with each new album and every fresh challenge he submits himself to; Joe Bonamassa not only expands his own musical palette but also quietly broadens the definition of blues music unlike all but a handful of his contemporaries. Love him or hate him, Joey B. is the stone cold real deal.