Joe Bonamassa (again)

Octahedron

OK so in case we missed the memo somehow, Joe Bonamassa has released a pair of new songs on the interwebs.

One 'launched' on Friday, titled "When One Door Opens". The music video for this track can be found here: https://youtu.be/48Dl1e4afnY

The other was released a number of weeks ago now, named "A Conversation With Alice"
https://youtu.be/_SKxbA2YtW8

So there is a few things going on here and I think it's an interesting pair of songs. They don't strike me as being comparable to what he's done in the past - stylistically.

I would say "A Conversation..." has a real southern rock vibe to it, there's a groove in that main riff that I really dig. The subject matter, lyrically, is clearly very personal to Joe. The solo is melodic and tasteful and doesn't shred, which I like. Everything in the song's performance feels very tight. 

"When one door..." caught me by surprise, because there's so many twists and turns in there. I've only heard it twice so far. I like it but I'm not hooked on it except for that heavy riff that kicks in further into the song...

These two raise a couple of questions for me... mainly, "is it blues?"

rlw

Is it supposed to be blues?  An awful lot of his stuff isn't.

"When one door opens" is pure 70s prog based rock and none the worse for it.

"A conversation with Alice" is pure Who.  Substitute Daltrey's voice and make the drummer play a few fiddly bits and you'd never know.

The man loves British music of the 60s and 70s and lets it show.

steven70

There's some interesting things going on in "When one door opens" and some nice riffage.
I never really thought he was all that as a 'straight' blues player, preferred him as a rock guitarist...can imagine hm sounding great in a band like Lizzy. Suppose that's the Gary Moore thing...anyways...Good stuff!

EricTheWeary

Well he keeps busy you've got to give him that.
I think JoBo is at his worst the more he tries his hand at blues authenticity, that Muddy Wolf thing he did ( probably not called that) was horrendous. A bit of a return to wanting to sound like it's 1974 isn't a bad thing in his case. I've got One Door on and that would have worked well as a Black Country Communion song, indeed this with Glenn Hughes on vocals probably better than most of what they actually did. 
That thinline Tele has a B bender I think? 

Philly_Q

I never know whether I like his stuff or not.  I can listen to one or two tracks and think they're great, but try to get through a whole album and I'm soon bored.

And... I liked these two tracks.  I also prefer him doing rock than blues, more in terms of the songs than the way he plays on them.  Although (again) I found Black Country Communion underwhelming.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

I never know whether I like his stuff or not.  I can listen to one or two tracks and think they're great, but try to get through a whole album and I'm soon bored.

And... I liked these two tracks.  I also prefer him doing rock than blues, more in terms of the songs than the way he plays on them.  Although (again) I found Black Country Communion underwhelming.

I had both BCC albums and found both disappointing. I'd seen Joe live a couple of times and a really great gig by Glenn with his own band yet as a  combination they didn't seem to click, hell of a line up so probably worth having  seeing live I guess. 

Litterick

Anglomania. Angling for a Bond theme.

Strat54

I hope its a good seller cos it cost him a small fortune to make. The original sessions had to be cancelled last summer when Fig broke his ankle and apparently he lost all the cash paid for Abbey Rd studio time and the months worth of £8k+ a night for hotels suites at The Lanesborough for him and Kevin Shirley because he couldn't find a suitable replacement. They came back earlier this year to do it all over again and then flew in his American songwriter to help....plus Bernie Marsden's time too..and all the rest. Not a lo-budget production lol. Then there's the $100 cigars.....
I'm no Bona-hater but I'm pretty fed up of the same old Kevin Shirley production. Its a bit tiresome now because really it all sounds the same. This is his angsty mid-life/ post Oz singer girl breakup record.....

Philly_Q

Strat54 said:

I'm no Bona-hater but I'm pretty fed up of the same old Kevin Shirley production. Its a bit tiresome now because really it all sounds the same.

Same with Iron Maiden.  Shirley must be a good guy to work with but most artists seem to benefit from changing things up occasionally.