It’s twenty years since the release of Bonamassa’s best-selling album Blues Deluxe, celebrating what the US government had then declared “the year of the blues” with a mix of originals and reinterpretations of classic songs. Now, the guitarist is taking stock of how far he and the genre have come with Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 that’s out now via J&R Adventures.
Alongside the album, comes the guitarist’s latest single, ‘Is It Safe To Go Home’, written and produced by Josh Smith.
Ostensibly a slow blues break-up number, the accompanying video tends to veer towards a more surreal David Lynch take in places, but it’s the guitar work that leaves the most lasting impression – From the sonic sustain of its intro, delicate chinks laid in the song, to soloing that see him reminiscent in style to both Dave Gilmour and Steve Hackett at various sections during this six minute plus song.
The album features two new originals in total and eight new covers spanning some of the most important names in the blues – from Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac to Albert King – Blues Deluxe 2 finds Bonamassa returning to his roots to give new life to the classic tracks that have informed his own artistry.
“If you had told me 20 years ago my career would last long enough to see the 20th anniversary of this little record called Blues Deluxe, I’m sure I would have laughed,” Bonamassa reflected. “Blues Deluxe was my last shot after being dropped by two major record labels and my booking agent. It was then that my manager, Roy Weisman, had his first ‘all in’ moment. We would go back into the studio and record. A record that would hopefully define the direction of whatever future career I might have.
“On Blues Deluxe Vol. 2, I asked my great friend Josh Smith to produce a record to be a companion to the anniversary edition of the first album, and hopefully demonstrate a bit of how I have progressed over the last 20 years,” Bonamassa added. “The contrast between a cocky 26-year-old and an established 46-year-old is considerable. Does the fire still burn like it did? Am I still playing hungry? Am I even good enough to pay tribute to my heroes all over again? The answer lies somewhere in this album.”
“When Joe asked me to produce Blues Deluxe Vol. 2, I knew immediately what I wanted to accomplish,” added Smith. “I wanted the fans to hear the completely natural, relaxed Joe that I hear when we are just goofing around playing guitars. He really was in the moment and feeling completely supported and I know that he really ‘went for it’ on everything.”
‘Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again)’ saw a September release as a single. Penned by the man himself with Tom Hambridge, it also appears on his Blues Deluxe, Vol. 2 album.
“We did a real Tower Of Power treatment on it,” Bonamassa revealed. “Now, the whole thing about Blues Deluxe, Vol. 2, we tried to keep the same ratio of covers to originals as on Blues Deluxe, Vol. 1, so we needed an upbeat song and I had this song kind of laying around for over a year.
“Calvin Turner wrote a killer funky horn part, and we just did like a Tower Of Power take on it and made no apologies about it. It’s just the nature of the groove and everything else – You have to tip the hat.”
Comparisons to Tower Of Power should hardly need apologies, the R ‘n B band having scored a number of Stateside Billboard hit singles in their time, not least the funk classic ‘Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)’, while the Tower Of Power horn section’s extra-curricular activities are possibly even more impressive, regularly appearing on hit albums by Little Feat and The Doobies Brothers plus appearances with Eric Clapton, Elton John, Stevie Nicks and others.
‘Truth is Bonamassa’s been increasing been adding some old school funk to his blues formula. It may take a more jazzy big-band horn section style but it’s been there in the back pocket ready to be pulled out. On ‘Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again)’ there’s a driving rhythm section who set the groove, and while the horns here do owe their arrangement to Tower Of Power – where it’s equally worth listening out for Bonamassa’s guitar weaving in and out – it’s possibly in the backing vocal with their measured repeated chants that the similarities bear hit potential, while Bonamassa’s own lead vocals often slip into stylistic mannerism he may well have picked up from Wet Willie‘s Jimmy Hall, whose solo album he produced a while back.
If that sounds like it could be just down your street, you can stream/listen to ‘Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again)’ by clicking here or just sit back and watch the official video, right here at RAMzine.
Previous to that, was the single ‘Lazy Poker Blues‘ where the 26 times Billboard chart-topper paying his respects to Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, with the guitarist rejuvenating their classic track for a modern audience, while offering deep reverence for the titans of British blues.
“Now, again, there are two Fleetwood Macs, there’s the one my mom really loved that had Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in it, and then there’s the one that my dad really loved, which had Peter Green in it,” Bonamassa quipped. “It’s kind of where I cut my teeth, how I learned how to play the blues, how I learned how to play guitar…Those were my gateways to the masters.”
Bonamassa gives the 60s tune an upbeat contemporary rocking and rolling feel with a little country on the side. While the original is a paean to the joys of sitting round doing nothing with your woman of choice, opening with the lines, “Me and my baby don’t do nothing but lay around all day long,” in this here video age, Bonamassa’s rendition tells a different visual story. A fun one you can also check out here at RAMzine.
Two previous singles have been released from the album, more recently ‘Twenty-Four Hour Blues’, a blistering reinterpretation of Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s classic track, featured on one of Bonamassa’s favourite albums of all time, Dreamer. The new version is said to feature one of Bonamassa’s best-ever vocals and guitar solos. “The outro guitar solo is incredible,” Smith commented. “It happened live on the floor and has some deep lines you’ve probably never heard Joe play before. The band is absolutely smoking, and Calvin Turner did an incredible string and horn arrangement. Super proud of this one.”
You can check out the official music video for ‘Twenty-Four Hour Blues’ here at RAMzine.
“Part of my approach to these new recordings was that I wanted to see if I had matured musically over the years, and if I had gotten better as a player,” Bonamassa said. “I’m happy to say that I am a much better singer than I was 20 years ago – though I still don’t really consider myself to be a legit ‘singer,’ I can now carry a tune a little better than I could back then.”
‘I Want To Shout About It’, originally performed by Ronnie Earl And The Broadcasters, was the lead single from the album. Bonamassa’s joyful version features solos from Reese Wynans on organ and Paulie Cerra on sax, as well as some killer adlibs from vocalists Dannielle DeAndrea and Charles Jones as the track winds to a close. “Shout About It is a song originally by the great Ronnie Earl And The Broadcasters with Darrel Nullisch on vocals,” Smith said. “It’s a tough/high song to sing and Joe really pushed himself and nailed it. It’s a real rave up, a party song. Joe has been playing it live lately and the crowds are really digging it!”
A rambunctious rendition of ‘Well, I Done Got Over It‘, originally released by Guitar Slim back in 1953, came out a single from Bonamassa this July.
“My father introduced me to Guitar Slim a long time ago, back when I was a kid,” the guitarist recalled. “There was a compilation album called Best Of Guitar Slim and it was him on the cover and he was cradling one of these Gold Top Les Pauls and I was a fan ever since. He has such a velvety smooth voice, and he had such a way of delivering a song. We did a very British take on this Guitar Slim song, it’s like the Bluesbreakers meets Guitar Slim meets Joe Bonamassa, Josh Smith and company.”
You can stream and listen to that single and check out the video here at RAMzine.
Featuring Reese Wynans (keys), Calvin Turner (bass), Lamar Carter (drums), Kirk Fletcher (guitar), and Smith (guitar), additional highlights from Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 include Guitar Slim’s ‘Well, I Done Got Over It’, Bobby Parker’s ‘It’s Hard But It’s Fair’, and ‘Is It Safe To Go Home’, a new track written by Josh Smith. “I knew I wanted to push him really hard vocally,” Smith added. “I’d heard him sing things just messing around or when we’d be producing for other artists that I’d never heard him do on record. So, the songs were both chosen and written with that in mind. If you listen to the vocals on ‘Twenty-Four Hour Blues’ and ‘Is It Safe To Go Home’, you’ll hear Joe really going for it.”
The full track listing for Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 is: ‘Twenty-Four Hour Blues’ (originally performed by Bobby “Blue” Bland), ‘It’s Hard But It’s Fair’ (originally performed by Bobby Parker), ‘Well, I Done Got Over It’ (originally performed by Guitar Slim), ‘I Want to Shout About It’ (originally performed by Ronnie Earle & The Broadcasters), ‘Win-O’ (originally performed by Pee Wee Crayton), ‘Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again)’ an original song written by Joe Bonamassa & Tom Hambridge, ‘Lazy Poker Blues’ (originally performed by Fleetwood Mac), ‘You Sure Drive A Hard Bargain’ (originally performed by Albert King), ‘The Truth Hurts’ featuring Kirk Fletcher and Josh Smith (originally performed by Kenny Neal) and ‘Is It Safe To Go Home’, an original song written by Josh Smith.
Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 can be ordered here. A remastered edition of its predecessor, Blues Deluxe, will drop on the same release date.
Having just earned a remarkable 26th #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart for his live concert film and album Tales Of Time, Bonamassa is heading to Europe for three weeks of festival performances, before returning to the US for a string of summer dates.
