Five Favourite Tunes - Day 4 I think you would all be amazed if I chose five favourite tunes and there was no place for a track from Joe Bonamassa, it could never happen. In my own humble opinion he is and has been for some time the finest player on the planet. Technique, style, tone, interpretation and feel are all there in abundance and Joe has worked so hard on his vocal too over the years. Aligned with that the mans work ethic and verve for his art is amazing and not only on his solo work, there has of course been Black Country Communion and the collaboration with Beth Hart plus numerous appearances on the albums of others, Henrik Freischlader, Healing Sixes, Jimmy Barnes and Bernie Marsden to name just four. Compared to the other artists that will make up my top five Joe is a relative new comer in that I only came to his music in 2006 whereas the other four have all been with me for over thirty or forty years. From the first moment I heard the mans music courtesy of Bob Harris I was hooked and I started collecting his then relatively small back catalogue. The real turning point for me was the release of the Sloe Gin album, not just a guitarists album, a complete album of top drawer music with tracks like Pall Been Hammer, Seagull and India but immediately for me there was one absolute stand out track and a track that come to symbolise my real love for Blues and Blues Rock, the monumental Sloe Gin, it is just glorious in construction and Joes execution. It became my true friend when I first began to experience my chronic back problems and I was crippled for ten weeks and left most days and evenings to lying on the floor in pitch dark just listening to music to escape the pain and the album and this track took me beyond the pain to a place of peace. It is another of those songs that when I see Joe live and he strikes up the opening low slow bars an inner calm falls over me and I disappear in to a place of my own and just let the haunting solos envelop me. The version I have chosen to share here is a very special moment in time for me. The culmination of Joes incredible Rock History stint of four nights in London last March, concluding in a sold out Albert Hall. Of course I was there with my gig buddy Tim and his son Tom and what made this version of Sloe Gin even more special; Joe played it on Rory Gallaghers beaten battered Strat, an iconic instrument held and played by a true modern day icon. Here is about 9 minutes of musical bliss!! https://youtube/watch?v=2AceOp5sYHg
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 13:05:01 +0000
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