Bonamassa’s ‘Black Rock’ Better Than ‘John Henry’

I’ll come right out and say it: Joe Bonamassa’s new Black Rock album is better than The Ballad of John Henry. My opinion, of course, and to some extent it’s apples/oranges, or at least apples/pears.

Still, that’s a pretty big statement because I believe John Henry debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues chart, and as I type this is still at No. 3. More importantly, John Henry was a great friggin’ album.

But I’m a rock guy, and Black Rock – Black Rock – has more rock (and better drumming, IMO), more riffs and a new fatter, darker guitar tone that pokes its head out in some places. I also like the overall tone and tone consistency of the album, and happen to dig the infusion of eastern/Mediterranean instruments here and there.

Yep, Mediterranean sounds on a blues album. Joe and his longtime producer, Kevin Shirley, have an agreement that they’ll keep a blues core but change things around from album to album. For Black Rock, it involved recording in Greece at a new studio named – Black Rock. Here’s more, from mixonline.com:

“Shirley saw a great opportunity when a friend, studio owner/engineer Kostas Kalimeris, mentioned that he was building Black Rock, a brand-new studio/villa in spectacular Santorini, Greece. Crystal-blue sea, historic architecture, a wealth of cultural/musical possibilities and a brand-new SSL 9080 J-based studio designed by Roger D’Arcy of Recording Architecture. It probably wasn’t too tough for Shirley to convince Bonamassa to bring his band to Greece to record a new album.

“The first thing we did was have a session with these two Greek guys, Thanasis Vasilopoulos on clarino and Manolis Karadinis on bouzouki,” Shirley says. “Neither of them spoke English, and it was an interesting way of getting the music going. We actually recorded one track sitting outside on the patio outside the studio. At night it’s so quiet there, the recording was beautiful. These were different elements that we introduced into Joe’s sound.”

Here’s what Kevin said about Joe’s equipment and recording:

“Normally, Joe plays a Les Paul, but on this album I wanted to try to challenge him, so I asked him to put away his beloved Les Paul and we recorded with him playing a Telecaster and an amplifier and nothing between them. Then I just I dangled a [Shure SM] 57 over the speaker, just trying to get an edgier live feeling.

“After five or six days of that, we went back to Joe’s comfort zone – we put up the huge stacks and miked them up properly with a 57 and the Beyer 201 and a Royer R121 and a Neumann 67 back into the room to give it a little bit of ambience.”

Track-by-Track Listen

That gives you a flavor of the album, and pending an interview with Joe, those are all the gear details we have. So here’s my track-by-track listen of the album (songs with ** are covers).

1. Steal Your Heart Away** – Cool opening riff, rocks, sounds like Joe just goes for it on the solo which is cool. Guitar sounds compressed – I’m assuming this is the Tele/small amp combo, but it’s in the studio so who knows.

2. I Know a Place** – Cool covering a John Hiatt tune. I’m no blues scholar, but I’m hearing Clapton-esque fills with woman-tone. Not familiar with Hiatt’s version, couldn’t find it on YouTube, but this is a rockin’ blues tune. Guitar again sounds compressed to me, Tube Screamer-ish, not that that’s bad. Almost a full 60-second solo!

3. When the Fire Hits the Sea – FAT guitar tone, big bluesy tune, squarely in what I would call the Joe Bonamassa style – and the best way I can describe that is you know it when you hear it. The ultimate compliment, really. Slide solo.

4. Quarryman’s Lament – Flute, some sort of mandolin-type instrument, eastern flavor. Yes, it’s a bluesy tune – it works! I really dig it. Nice to hear something different attempted, and well-executed just makes it that much better.

Joe during the Black Rock sessions (mixonline.com photo).

5. Spanish Boots** – Yeah! This is the old Jeff Beck tune (Rod Stewart on vox), whose riff sounds like a speeded-up version of Zep’s “The Lemon Song” (incidentally, both tunes came out in ’69). Joe’s version is more polished, bigger and rocks. Great pick. Click here to hear the Beck version on Lala.com.

6. Bird on a Wire** – A Leonard Cohen tune? A ballad? With Mediterranean instruments? Not only does Joe pull this off, it sounds great. Great singing. The instruments all work together. I’m impressed.

7. Three Times a Fool** – An up-tempo Otis Rush blues tune. Joe can do this kind of tune all day long, and does it here. Feels like a short tune.

8. Night Life** – This has BB King on it (singing and playing), which automatically makes it cool. It’s a Willie Nelson tune, and has that sort of feel-good vibe. BB and Joe do some cool “comping” on it. Man, all BB needs is one note. One note to make a point, one note and you know it’s him. Just incredible.

9. Wandering Earth – Another Joe tune with a FAT tone. This might be my favorite guitar tone on the album, helped by the riff. Might even be my favorite Black Rock tune just because of the tone. I can’t wait to see this tune live – that’s a hint, Joe!

10. Look Over Yonders Wall** – A faster blues tune: I can see John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd dancing to this one. I like the guitar sound on this one.

11. Athens to Athens – A cool acoustic number, with some participation from the Mediterranean instruments (I think – it might be Joe). Reinforced to me how cool it is that Joe can go acoustic and sound just as good, if not better in some ways – his voice may be more relaxed, which is a good thing.

12. Blue and Evil – With a title like that, what do you expect? But it starts out soft. Zep-like in the chorus. That fat tone again. This tune makes me want to grab a guitar, round up the fellas and jam!

13. Baby You Gotta Change Your Mind** – A happy, light Blind Boy Fuller tune. Putting this tune at the end of the disc kind of fits with Joe’s apparent penchant for what I’ll call a “soft landing:” Sometimes he ends his shows on a soft note, and here he does the same thing.

Upshot

Here’s what Joe wrote in a forum post about Black Rock: “I am very proud of Black Rock. I believe it is as good if not better than anything I have ever done.

“Robert Plant suggested that I do ‘Steal Your Heart Away,’ Mr. [BB] King suggested either ‘Buzz Me’ or ‘Night Life.’  Each of these songs are made and done in my own way. I do not have a ego about who writes the songs. I make records that sound good to me. I also strive for a record that entertains people and makes a statement.”

My opinion is that it’s a great record, has great variety that works together, and there’s not another album like it out there. Yes, John Henry was a monster album with some killer songs (particularly the title track), but I still like Black Rock better. It rocks more and hangs together better – again, my opinion.

Black Rock comes out March 23, though you can get it a couple of weeks before that by pre-ordering it on Joe’ site. After that presumably is a tour, and then the much-anticipated Black Country record.

All this black – I hope Joe trots out some cool black guitars. I’m visualizing a black Les Paul Custom….

Category: Joe Bonamassa, mp3/CD/DVD