Label: J&R Adventures
Release date: 6. 10. 2023
Production: Josh Smith
Album length: 42.38 min
Genre: Blues Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
“Blues Deluxe” holds a special place in the career of Joe Bonamassa, the blues ambassador of our age. It’s the album he’ll always happily talk your ear off about. It was a turning point, because it saved his skin. With it, Bonamassa secured his artistic survival. A full twenty years have passed since its release, and Joe has matured right along with it. Not only has his career become something exceptional in that time, both commercially and in terms of artistic growth, he has also climbed into the league of serious workaholics and has been seen for years as one of the most active, unshakable and creatively focused musicians out there. He’s also become a hugely important figure in modern blues, in the sense that his commercial success and nonstop flow of albums, studio and live alike, have stirred up fresh interest in blues, a genre that hasn’t been in the spotlight for a good few decades. And across generations, too. That might be the most important part of all.
Artistically, Joe Bonamassa remains tough and self-critical. If “Blues Deluxe” was the lifeline of his career, recorded fast and on a shoestring budget, with invitations to join tours from Peter Frampton and George Thorogood in 2003 doing the heavy lifting (keeping Bonamassa above water), then its successor “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2”, with which ‘Smokin’ Joe’ celebrates the 20th anniversary of his third album, is a very different ‘beast’. Not in the sense of another tribute to the blues legends and another round of flirting with the roots of the genre, but in the sense that Bonamassa has masterfully poured into it all the maturity and expressive artistic power he has reached twenty years later, at 46. The recording budget for “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2” was considerably bigger than it was back then, so the result is also far richer and more lavish than “Blues Deluxe”, in both production and arrangements. The arrangements pile on the extras: female backing vocals, horns, strings, Hammond organ, playful touches of classical piano. All of that has, of course, been standard practice for Bonamassa across his studio albums of the last 20 years.
And then some. “Blues Deluxe” felt rawer, with the guitar work laid bare in every respect and carrying the bulk of the artistic expression. The album remains a Bonamassa classic in every sense, even after 20 years. As for live energy, the new release can’t be faulted there either, even with the more sophisticated building blocks of the sound (the palette is wider). It speaks to you in a more refined and lavish way, grabbing with the same intensity but ‘sucking the listener in’ differently. This new test of artistic competence was the main goal for Joe Bonamassa. Could he artistically stand up to the rhetoric of the originals and pour them into the present, putting his current artistic core front and center? Given everything Bonamassa has shown in the last twenty years, nobody doubted for a second that Joe was up to the challenge. Nobody except Joe himself.
Bonamassa’s fingers are running smooth as oil. This time his own songwriting isn’t in the foreground, since the album features eight covers. Joe picked a handful of favorites from the pioneering days of the blues as a starting point and masterfully turned them inside out, so that they embody the mature stance he has reached today. No surprise, then, that you can feel the ‘imprint’ of “Time Clocks” (2021, RockLine review) in the arrangements and production. The only two new originals, Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again) and the closer Is It Safe To Go Home, work perfectly on “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2” and sit brilliantly alongside the covers of chosen blues classics. The first is a funked-up, cheekily teasing number where Calvin Turner’s active bass line plays a hugely important role. The second is a gorgeous, endlessly melancholy, yearning piece where Bonamassa once again shows off his remarkable knack for channeling a powerful dose of musicality. This classically built blues ballad builds gradually into a dramatic, theatrical showpiece, and its sheer force of passion hooks you instantly. Among the outstanding tracks in which Bonamassa bows to the likes of Bobby Bland, Peter Green, BB King and Albert King, the closing Is It Safe To Go Home is in itself one of the album’s standout peaks. It’s also a superb vocal performance from Bonamassa. You can’t remember when exactly Joe last pushed out so much vocal ‘fullness’ in such high registers as this song demands. The opener, Twenty-Four Hour Blues, originally performed by Bobby Bland, gives you instant proof that Bonamassa has made a huge leap forward vocally in the last twenty years.
And finally, and this absolutely can’t be overlooked: Bonamassa is first and foremost a guitarist. In the ‘more is more’ department, there are of course the solo excursions that stamp the album from top to bottom, though the arrangements give the overall feeling that the solos aren’t as exposed as they were twenty years ago, when the guitar didn’t have such vivid backing and support from the arrangement of each track as it does now. You can tell Bonamassa no longer feels the need to prove himself by flaunting technical tricks. You couldn’t say that about “Blues Deluxe”, where Bonamassa often showed off blistering speed and precision at once in his guitar solos. This ‘calming down’ is also a sign of the maturity that comes with the years. The fire of the performance is remarkable, and with all the finesse “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2” has, that element is essential. It has to stay restrained, otherwise no blues rock album (any blues rock album) can truly grab you.
“Blues Deluxe Vol. 2” is another act of artistic triumph from the unshakable Joe Bonamassa. Flawless. Victorious. It will be interesting to see where the man soars next. We know that behind the scenes of Joe’s solo career, among other things, the outlines of a new Black Country Communion album are taking shape, and that Joe is already planning new visits to European stages next year. How will all these ‘artistic stimuli’ show up on the (likely) all-original successor to “Time Clocks”, and on the stopover in between, the tribute to the blues legends “Blues Deluxe Vol 2”? We’re already talking about the future, while the fire and smoke around the excellent “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2” have only just started to really swirl and blaze. With “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2”, Bonamassa can be completely at peace inside when it comes to checking his own artistic credibility. The album delivers nothing but the best this musical master knows how to give and is capable of offering.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Twenty-Four Hour Blues (originally performed by Bobby “Blue” Bland)
2. It’s Hard But It’s Fair (originally performed by Bobby Parker)
3. Well, I Done Got Over It (originally performed by Guitar Slim)
4. I Want to Shout About It (originally performed by Ronnie Earle & The Broadcasters)
5. Win-O (originally performed by Pee Wee Crayton)
6. Hope You Realize It (Goodbye Again) *original song written by Joe Bonamassa & Tom Hambridge
7. Lazy Poker Blues (originally performed by Fleetwood Mac)
8. You Sure Drive a Hard Bargain (originally performed by Albert King)
9. The Truth Hurts Feat Kirk Fletcher and Josh Smith (originally performed by Kenny Neal)
10. Is It Safe To Go Home *original song written by Josh Smith
Lineup:
Joe Bonamassa – vocals, guitar
Josh Smith – guitar
Kirk Fletcher – guitar
Reese Wynans – keyboards, Hammond B3 organ
Calvin Turner – bass guitar, horn, string arrangements
Lamar Carter – drums
Steve Patrick – trumpet
Jeff Bailey – trumpet
Jimmy Bowland – flute, saxophone, alto flute
Mark Douthit – saxophone
Barry Breen – trombone
Matt Jefferson – bass trombone
Paulie Cerra – saxophone on track no. 4
Jade MacRae – backing vocals
Dannielle DeAndrea – backing vocals
Charles Jones – backing vocals
Mahalia Barnes – backing vocals
String section:
David Angell – violin
Conni Ellisor – violin
Janet Darnall – violin
Carrie Bailey – violin
Jenny Bifano – violin
Ali Hoffman – violin
Monisa Angell – viola
Elizabeth Lamb – viola
Anthony La Marchina – cello
Sari Reist – cello
