CD Review: Joe Bonamassa's British Blues Explosion Live (2018)

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa has released a new album, with Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening still a vibrant reflection in our rear-view mirror. Still, Joe loves the stage, and at this point in a career that has spanned nearly three decades, he’s released more live albums as a solo artist (14 counting this one) than he has studio works (a dozen as of 2016)…and don’t get me started on his band efforts with Black Country Communion or collaborations with singer Beth Hart. Releasing at least an album a year, he’s as prolific as any artist currently working.

Joe’s latest live set is yet another expansive two-disc collection where the guitarist lets his British blues-rock flag proudly fly. Guessing that Joe’s dad is of a similar vintage as myself (i.e. early 60s in age), we probably shared a lot of the same records – records that young Joe B. grew up listening to. Joe’s love of British blues-rock has been quite evident on his albums through the years, as he’s covered songs by a lot of his fave artists, but British Blues Explosion Live brings the guitarist’s fascination with bands like Cream, the Jeff Beck Group, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and Led Zeppelin to a boiling point.

Joe Bonamassa’s British Blues Explosion Live

Recorded live in July 2016 at The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich U.K. this fourteen-track collection may be the heaviest guitar album that Bonamassa has made in years. Joe’s done his homework here as well, mixing in covers of the usual suspects (Jeff Beck’s “Beck’s Bolero,” Zep’s “Boogie With Stu,” Cream’s “SWLABR”) with a few deep cuts of lesser renown. Although Eric Clapton’s reading of the traditional “Motherless Children” is a familiar favorite from his acclaimed 1974 album 461 Ocean Boulevard, his cover of songwriter George Terry’s “Mainline Florida” is obscure by any measure. Bonamassa funks the tune up with a loping groove and soulful vocals while the band recreates the original soundtrack to perfection.

Willie Dixon’s classic “Let Me Love You Baby” has been recorded by everybody from Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Blodwyin Pig, and Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. I’m not sure whose version inspired young Joe, but I’m going with Savoy Brown’s, as Bonamassa’s raucous fretwork here reminds of young Kim Simmonds (tho’ Joe is a fan of Blodwyn Pig’s Mick Abrahams). The Jeff Beck Group’s “Plynth (Water Down the Drain),” from the 1969 album Beck-Ola, was a tailor-made showcase for Bonamassa’s rockin’ “Guitar God” persona, and while his hurried vocals don’t capture much of the soul innate in Rod Stewart’s original performance, his fretwork burns with the intensity of a collapsing star.

How Many More Times

The vastly influential John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers is represented by “Double Crossing Time” and “Little Girl” from their classic 1966 LP Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. The former is a sizzling Chicago-styled blues romp with plenty of Reese Wynans’ tinkling piano keys and Bonamassa’s fatback fretwork while the latter is a more up-tempo jaunt with stinging guitar and rollicking instrumentation. A cover of Beck’s “Spanish Boots” is simply breathtaking, Bonamassa’s voice soaring above the staggering rhythms while his guitar rages like a hurricane fiercely eyeing landfall. 

Bonamassa sneaks his own instrumental “Black Winter/Django” onto the set list, and it’s a testament to his British blues-rock influences that his nimble-fingered guitar playing reminds of both Beck and Jimmy Page. The guitarist’s duel with drummer Anton Fig here is particularly exhilarating, the two artists parrying and thrusting their instruments like skilled fencers gone mad. Fig’s bombastic percussion opens Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times,” Bonamassa’s vocals flowing more naturally than Plant’s original efforts, and while he’s not bowing his fretboard, he’s tearing it up like Albert King at his peak.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Joe Bonamassa never ceases to surprise, and British Blues Explosion Live is certainly no exception. The inspiration for these performances leaps out of the grooves with a vengeance, leaving Bonamassa’s talented veteran road band to catch up. There’s nary a wrong note to be found among these fourteen tracks, and the immense contributions here of keyboard wrangler Reese Wynans – himself a veteran of bands like Captain Beyond and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble – remind listeners of the role that piano-pounders like Nicky Hopkins and Ian Stewart playing on the original recordings of these songs.

Altogether, British Blues Explosion Live is another triumph for Bonamassa’s restless muse, serving as a solid addition to the guitarist’s ever-growing catalog of music as well as a fine introduction to the artist’s considerable talents. Grade: A (J&R Adventures, released May 18, 2018)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Joe Bonamassa’s British Blues Explosion Live   

Also on That Devil Music:
Joe Bonamassa - Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening CD review
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - Black Coffee CD review

1968 Revisited: Jeff Beck's Truth

British rock legend Jeff Beck is a bona fide guitar innovator who helped define a particular blues-rock style of playing while also influencing a generation (or three) of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, and jazz string-benders and fret-burners. Joe Bonamassa has cited Beck as a major inspiration, and his enormous influence can be heard in the music of artists as diverse as Adrian Belew (The Bears, King Crimson), Steve Vai, Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Joe Satriani, and Tommy Bolin, among many others.

After playing with a number of small bands during the early ‘60s, and doing session work, Beck first came to prominence as a member of popular British blues-rock band the Yardbirds. Replacing guitarist Eric Clapton, who jumped ship to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Beck played on nearly all of the band’s mid-decade Top 40 hits, including “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down,” as well as on the 1966 Yardbirds’ album Roger the Engineer. After leaving the band, Beck released a string of modestly-successful U.K. singles like “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and “Tallyman” before recording Truth, his 1968 solo debut album.

Jeff Beck’s Truth

One of rock music’s truly lost classic albums, the good folks at Sony Legacy decided to provide Truth (and its follow-up, Beck-Ola) the deluxe reissue treatment in 2006. Remastered and provided dynamics appropriate to the digital age, the songs on Truth sound every bit as dirty and grungy as they did when originally released back in 1968. Six-string wizard Jeff Beck had been unceremoniously sacked from the Yardbirds and living in the shadows of Eric Clapton’s international acclaim when he pieced together this short-lived ensemble, the first ‘Jeff Beck Group,’ that included Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, and Micky Waller on drums.

Truth would introduce the world (and, more specifically, a U.S. audience as the album charted Top 20 stateside) to the talents of singer Rod Stewart but, more importantly, Truth would become one of the cornerstones for both ‘70s heavy metal (blues roots, big vocals, heavy percussion, screaming guitar solos) and the blueprint for dozens of British blooze-rock bands to follow in the wake of Cream (including Led Zeppelin, formed by Beck’s former bandmate Jimmy Page). Along the way, however, Truth has been overlooked for its mastery of form and the impressive range of the individual performances. Stewart’s vocals are never less than superlative, no matter what direction Beck takes the band, and the album’s mix of hard rock, Delta blues, Motown soul, and jazzy flourishes make for an intoxicating elixir.

Beck’s Bolero

A remake of the Yardbirds’ hit “Shape of Things” soars on Stewart’s weary vocals and the song’s pulse-thumping instrumental breakdown. Stewart’s “Let Me Love You” (in reality, a reworked Buddy Guy tune) benefits from a heavy bass riff, explosive percussion, and Beck’s cyclonic psych-drenched guitar licks. Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” (a hit for folkie Tim Rose) is delivered as a soulful ballad while Willie Dixon’s classic “You Shook Me” (a major hit for Chicago blues giant Muddy Waters) showcases the band’s collective blues roots and love for the genre. Based on Stewart’s expressive vocals and studio pro Nicky Hopkin’s piano flourishes, Beck embroiders the performance with some of his edgiest and most imaginative playing.

An impromptu studio performance of the medieval folk standard “Greensleeves,” which displays the full measure of the guitarist’s skills, would surprisingly became an audience favorite while the B-side of “Hi Ho Silver Lining,” the electrifying instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” has become known as one of Beck’s signature songs. The stereo version of “Bolero” includes studio guests like Jimmy Page and the Who’s Keith Moon alongside Beck and band. The writing of the blues-infused shouter “Rock My Plimsoul” is credited to Jeffrey Rod (Beck and Stewart), but it is really just a raucous re-write of B.B. King’s classic “Rock Me Baby” while the slow-burning “Blues Deluxe,” which has been covered by Beck fan Bonamassa, is based on King’s “Gambler’s Blues” and features some fine Hopkins’ piano along the song’s fringes to accompany Beck’s jagged fretwork.

Willie Dixon’s “I Ain’t Superstitious” was a big song for blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, and has been covered over the years by everybody from the Yardbirds and Savoy Brown to the Grateful Dead and Carlos Santana. Beck has recorded “I Ain’t Superstitious” multiple times himself, including the greasy, wah-wah tinged version found on Truth. The 2006 Sony Legacy reissue of Truth includes extensive liner notes and eight additional tracks. The non-LP single “Hi Ho Silver Lining” was an uncharacteristic psych-pop offering featuring rare Beck vocals; ditto for “Tallyman,” which is even more of a trifle and notable mostly for Beck’s scorching solos. Much better is “I’ve Been Drinking,” the B-side to the 1967 single “Love Is Blue,” which allows Stewart to capture the full emotional pathos of the re-worked Johnny Mercer original.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Beck’s Truth would launch a solo career that persists, 50 years later, to the present day, the guitarist nearly as spry and innovative in 2018 as he was in 1968. The Beck-Ola album would follow in 1969, earning Beck his “guitar god” status, and subsequent albums (now credited to the ‘Jeff Beck Group’) would further explore musical avenues in soul, R&B, and jazz. A brief dalliance with the power trio Beck, Bogart & Appice would result in a pair of blustery blooze-rawk releases, after which Beck would deliver his mid-‘70s jazz-rock fusion classics Blow By Blow and Wired. It all began with Truth, however, the album highly recommended for classic rock fans, guitar aficionados, blues fans, Rod Stewart fans, Jeff Beck fans, and just about everybody else. It’s just that damn good… (Sony Legacy, released October 10, 2006)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Jeff Beck’s Truth

Also on That Devil Music.com:
Jeff Beck’s Performing This Week...Live at Ronnie Scott’s CD review
The Yardbirds’ Ultimate! CD review

Archive Review: The Yardbirds' Ultimate!

One of the truly legendary bands in rock music, it's nevertheless been very difficult for the average music fan to assemble any sort of coherent Yardbirds' collection. Back in the '60s heyday of the band, the original British versions of their albums were sliced and diced, mixed and matched, and then re-titled for release stateside. Cut-out during the '70s, collectors paid premium prices for rare copies of the Yardbirds' vinyl. During the CD era, albums disappeared and reappeared with unpredictable reliability and "greatest hits" collections, often slapped together by unscrupulous fly-by-night labels, proliferated. A lot of great music got misplaced, until the recent release of Ultimate! by Rhino Records.

For younger music fans that want to know what all the brouhaha over the Yardbirds is about, look no further than Ultimate! The two-CD, 52-track boxed collection includes an enormous booklet filled with rare photos, song credits and comprehensive liner notes and history provided by late musician/collector/authority Cub Koda. It's the music that does the talking on Ultimate!, however, the Yardbirds kicking out an original and groundbreaking mix of blues and riff-oriented blues-rock during their five-year lifespan. The band was blessed during its brief existence with not one but three – count 'em – three superstar six-string talents. Eric Clapton contributed guitar duties for one of the earliest incarnations of the band, leaving after a year and a half to be replaced by Jeff Beck. Jimmy Page joined the band as a bass player; later moving to guitar in a twin-guitar version of the band before taking over solo duties upon Beck's departure.

The Yardbirds' Ultimate!

Ultimate! pieces together a chronological history of the Yardbirds, beginning with early Clapton-led singles and other material recorded under the direction of original manager/producer Giorgio Gomelsky. The Gomelsky "era" stretches across the first disc and includes some of Clapton's legendary original contributions to the band. Highlights include covers of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" and the Ernie K-Doe hit "A Certain Girl" as well as live tracks taken from the band's debut album Five Live Yardbirds. The classic hit single "For Your Love" proved to be Clapton's swansong, the guitarist leaving the band in a huff over the song's commercial sound.

When Clapton departed to pursue a purer shade of blue with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Jeff Beck was recruited and joined the Yardbirds as his replacement. It proved to be a match made in heaven – Beck's improvisational six-string wizardry found a perfect chemistry with frontman Keith Relf's passionate vocals and inspired harp playing. This would be the most successful period of the band's career, as they cranked out chart-topping hits like "Heart Full of Soul," "Shapes of Things," and "Over Under Sideways Down." There were plenty of other great tunes, though, such as the rollicking B-side instrumental "Jeff's Boogie" or a raucous cover of "The Train Kept A Rollin'" recorded at Sam Phillip's Recording Service in Memphis. Beck's maniacal use of feedback, distortion, echo and fuzz created a trademark sound for the band and paved the way for a thousand-and-one late '60s garage bands to delve into psychedelica, heavy metal and endless instrumental jams.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor

Bassist and "musical director" Paul Samwell-Smith left the Yardbirds in 1966 to pursue a successful career as a producer, working with talents like Cat Stevens and Jethro Tull. Jimmy Page was brought in to play bass, taking over six-string duties on tour during a Beck absence. The Beck/Page line-up only recorded a couple of singles, most notably "Stroll On" from the movie Blow-Up and the single "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," which also featured future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul.

The Page-led Yardbirds kicked out some interesting tuneage, working with new manager Peter Grant and superstar Britpop producer Mickey Most, moving into a less bluesy and more complex psychedelic-influenced era. Page's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" was a fascinating slice of pop-rock while the acoustic-instrumental "White Summer" was an energetic artistic predecessor to Led Zeppelin's experimentation with British folk and Middle Eastern melodies. The Harry Nilsson composition "Ten Little Indians" is a chaotic delight while "Drinking Muddy Water" sounds like the Chicago blues as filtered through London's Marquee Club. Ultimate! also adds three solo recordings from Yardbirds' vocalist Keith Relf.

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Over the course of seven albums, the Yardbirds earned a legacy as one of the true seminal bands in rock 'n' roll history. Their musical contributions to the genre still sound alive and vibrant thirty-five years after the fact. The band also served as an important predecessor to the formation of Led Zeppelin, arguably the most important and successful rock band of the '70s.

If I had one complaint with this set, it is in the lack of material from the band's collaboration with blues giant Sonny Boy Williamson, an inspired album that predated the superstar-laden London Sessions albums by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf by a decade. Ultimate! nonetheless provides a fine history of the band, an important collection that should please both hardcore collectors and new listeners alike. (Rhino Records, released July 31, 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™

CD Review: Jeff Beck's Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's

British blues-rock guitarist Jeff Beck first came to prominence as Eric Clapton’s replacement in the legendary British blues-rock band the Yardbirds. Better than five decades have passed since that time, and Beck has shown a maddening propensity for confounding the expectations of any observer. His impressive catalog of music ranges from blues-rock and proto-heavy metal to jazz-fusion, pop, and even reggae.

Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's documents the highlights of a week’s worth of performances from 2007 by Beck and his hand-picked band of bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, keyboardist Jason Rebello, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. The album was originally released in 2008 as a single-disc set featuring sixteen inspired performances; seven years later, Eagle Rock has graced us with an expanded version including a second disc with bonus tracks featuring guest stars like Clapton, and singers Joss Stone and Imogen Heap. The new disc also includes a seven-song live set by Beck with British R&B outfit the Big Town Playboys, with which the guitarist recorded the 1993 album Crazy Legs. 

Jeff Beck’s Performing This Week...

Beck used his five-night stand at Ronnie Scott’s club to revisit a wide range of musical memories. Performing This Week opens with Beck's classic rock chestnut, “Beck’s Bolero,” first recorded in 1966 with members of the Who and the guys that would eventually become Led Zeppelin, and was originally issued as the B-side of an early Jeff Beck single. The song is, structurally, a confused mess of martial rhythms and neo-classical riffs paired with Beck’s soaring, mournful guitar riff that speaks in its own otherworldly voice before the song breaks down into a blues-rock romp amidst a squall of instrumentation. By any theory, it shouldn’t work – but it does – and the song has thrilled audiences for decades now!

From this point, Performing This Week runs fast and loose through a set of songs that showcase Beck’s broad musical palette. The guitarist’s love of avant-garde jazz is on display with the band’s scorching cover of John McLaughlin’s “Eternity's Breath.” Beck’s fingers dance across the edge of a breathtaking song that reveals elements of blues, funk, rock, and jazz sitting in wait beneath a storm of percussion, Beck’s fretwork moving from silence to a scream and back in the blink of an eye. Beck’s reading of jazz drummer Billy Cobham’s classic “Stratus” is both subdued and elegant, the guitarist not attempting to merely mimic the underrated Tommy Bolin’s original 1973 fretwork, but rather build upon it in a re-imaging of the song’s aggressive mix of rock, jazz, and blues.

Beck’s Brush With The Blues

Stevie Wonder’s classic “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” is interpreted by Beck as a melancholy dirge, crying notes capturing the bittersweet feel of the original. Performed sans vocals, the arrangement relies heavily on instrumentation to create the atmosphere, and the weeping guitar and subtle, funky bass notes do not disappoint. The energetic “Blast From The East” begins with a wiry rhythmic framework on top of which Beck embroiders his golden six-string flourishes, the guitarist’s recurrent, mesmerizing riff-like lead punctuated by blasts of psychedelic color, explosive percussion, and a funky throbbing bass-line. An inspired mash-up of Charles Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” with the Beck/Tony Hymas original “Brush With The Blues” falls heavier on the blues side of the musical equation. Beck’s dark-hued arrangement of the songs amplify their mournful aspects, his guitar scattering crying notes across a subdued drumbeat and slight rhythm, Beck coaxing tears out of his instrument, duplicating the saddest blues lyrics you've ever heard.

Beck revisits a number of fan favorites with Performing This Week. The lively “Led Boots” is a flat-out rocker with razor-sharp blues-rock riffs and nimble percussion, while Beck’s “Scatterbrain” begins with a locomotive rockabilly riff before descending into literal madness, the musicians delving deep into instrumental anarchy before order is once again restored to close the song. Beck’s version of the Lennon/McCartney Beatles’ gem “A Day In The Life” has been a live staple of his for years, and here he imbues the song with such lovely grace and dignity that you can literally hear the well-worn lyrics sung through his instrument. The Tony Hymas/Simon Phillips jam “Space Boogie” from Beck’s 1980 album There and Back is a perfect example of the guitarist’s mid-to-late 1970s flirtation with eclectic jazz-fusion. Beck’s dynamic, manic fretboard runs duel with Jason Rebello’s lively piano-pounding, the song sounding altogether like an entertaining Return To Forever studio outtake. 

Live At Ronnie Scott’s Bonus Tracks

As mentioned above, Performing This Week has been expanded to a second disc with additional audio from the original recorded shows along with bonus tracks featuring the Big Town Playboys. To be honest, the vocal tracks don’t do much for me here…no, the Reverend isn’t one of those purists who believes that Rod Stewart is the only appropriate singer for Beck. But the normally soulful Joss Stone over-emotes like crazy on an otherwise inspired performance of the Curtis Mayfield classic “People Get Ready,” her over-the-top vox drawing ready comparisons to Stewart, who sang the song on Beck’s 1985 album Flash, scoring a minor hit. Imogen Heap does a fine job with the Muddy Waters’ gem “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” the band getting deep down in a dark groove behind Beck’s locomotive riffing and guitar squeals, her vocals as nasty as the backing instrumentation, providing the song with an eerie, swampy voodoo vibe.

Beck’s longtime friend and sometimes competitor Eric Clapton is featured on a pair of tunes, including Waters’ “Little Brown Bird.” Although the guitar interplay between the two legends is invigorating, Clapton’s lackluster vocals hit your ears more like a whisper than a howl. Better is his take on Willie Dixon’s “You Need Love,” the bones of which were appropriated years ago by the pair’s old Yardbirds mate Jimmy Page for Zeppelin. Above some massive riffs and a rocking rhythm track, Clapton attempts to hit something approximating Robert Plant’s vocals, displaying a spark of his old fire. Better still are the six performances featuring Beck and the Big Town Playboys, a fiery mix of blues, rockabilly, and reckless soul that benefits from Beck’s instinctive fretwork. No source or date is listed for these performances, but they sizzle like bacon fat, tracks like Gene Vincent’s “Race With The Devil” and Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox” shaking, rattling, and rolling like a juke-joint Saturday night. A scorching cover of the standard “Train Kept A Rollin’” is hot enough to have Johnny Burnette rocking in his grave. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

If you’ve been wondering for even a minute why Jeff Beck received the honor of induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Performing This Week should answer all of your questions. No single guitarist...not even a trailblazer like Jimi Hendrix...has done more to expand the vocabulary of the instrument than Jeff Beck. His technique is nearly flawless, his versatility simply awe-inspiring, and his encyclopedic knowledge of musical styles is beyond impressive.

With boundless imagination and no little sense of musical adventure, Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott’s represents the wealth of excellence that has been the hallmark of Jeff Beck’s lengthy and creative musical career. The addition of a second disc chockfull of additional performances makes a good thing even better. The only question remaining is why did Eagle Rock wait so long to release these musical goodies on CD? Better late than never, I suppose, and if you didn’t grab up a copy of Performing This Week the first time round, here’s another chance to take the ride – this time with even more musical goodness. (Eagle Rock Records, released June 2, 2015)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Jeff Beck's Performing This Week... Live At Ronnie Scott's