Guys,

Do we have any likings for Black Country Communion, Mahalia Barnes, and Rock Candy Funk ?

BCC is a great bluesy rock'n'roll band...Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian.

I just wish they were more of a fully-functional touring band rather than a studio supergroup, but Joe is so busy with his solo career that it eventually led to them breaking up and some bad blood between him and Glenn. They reunited earlier this year for a new album (BCCIV) after a five-year split, but they're still only playing a handful of shows in support, so not much has changed on the live front and I don't expect it to.

Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

The new album sounds promising:





[www.youtube.com]

Joe is one of my favorite guitar players but I hate BCC. Go figure. Seen him several times, twice this year at the Beacon. He's got a killer band, including Reese Wynans of Double Trouble on keys and Anton Fig on drums. I get that people don't care for him but he really brings it live. He did some nice stuff with Beth Hart. He's also a shameless shill:

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

The double live album Joe did with Beth Hart is awesome. I'd never heard of her before but what a voice she has!

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EasterMan

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

That's how I hear him, too + his sound and tone isn't really very unique.

The Ronnie-quote could mean that his bass playing really impressed him, though, and in fairness it's obvious that Jeff Beck thought the same

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

The new album sounds promising:





[www.youtube.com]

I knew there was a reason why I liked you and how you think ,which I could not agree any more wholeheartedly .

My favorite Joe Bonamassa side project is the one with Beth Hart. From what I understand (and am hopeful for) a new album is in the works for that project. I can only hope. Although I've been a big Beth Hart fan since seeing her in the '90's on "Star Search", I honestly believe that some of her best work has been the two albums she did with Joe. Now if they would only tour together in the US. That's a show I would be willing to drive a ways for.

Peace,
Mr DJA

JB "Live At The Greek Theatre" is a real killer!

So I do not know much about Bonamassa, but I did go see him about a week ago. I was shocked to see the face value of the tickets were over $200, but I nailed front row for $70 through the touts. I thought he was a good guitar player doing the guitar hero thing, but as others said, his tone misses something and his solos are fairly standard/predictable. I thought the keyboard stuff (Reese Wynans) was HORRIBLE...just endless organ playing that was drowning out much of the guitar.

My main thought was that Bonamassa needs a band to play with, he would sound better working within something than just out impressing old white people who know little about music (the crowd, not this forum). The age group seemed to be 55-70, I'm quite a bit under that.

I think of a guy like Dave Alvin who isn't nearly as costly (I presume not as famous) who play wonderfully. When with the Blaster live, his solos are absolutely perfect. I suspect a lot of people are really impressed by hearing a lot of notes rather than hearing the guitar...if that makes sense.

In short, I am glad I tried something new (for me), but I will not be back for Joe.

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EasterMan

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

Now I have another reason to dislike him .Wow talk about the ole green eye coming out jeez.

My impression of Bonamassa is that he's a workaholic who makes a LOT of money as a solo act playing his blues music to, as you said, older white people with lots of disposable cash.

The reason why Black Country Communion didn't work as a fully-functional band is that Joe needed to split his vision four ways with three other accomplished (and relatively well-known) musicians.

I love Joe but he does tend to go into "Guitar Workbook" mode at times, especially when he's on a tour of 25 dates in a month. And, yeah, he charges too much. Anyway..





[www.youtube.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-04 01:57 by bleedingman.

i love BCC mainly because of hughes

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keefriffhard4life
i love BCC mainly because of hughes

+1

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EasterMan

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

Yes....a trifle disrespectful, but didn't Stanley Clarke think the same way ? Both were knocked out by the Jeff Beck Group.

An interesting thread here, covering, as I see it, JB music/style, demographics of an audience, and the ever present ticket price debate . So my comments on above, in that order:

Music - JB is without doubt a brilliant guitarist, but it's almost as if he doesn't quite know what to do with it. First time I saw him, he was definitely in 'guitar workbook mode', as he romped through classical/blues/rock and back again. 'Look what I can do! Anything!' He just came over as a show-off, the show had no structure, and added to that, we sat in front of a screeching speaker, some people walked out because of that. But I have seen him twice more, the speakers sorted, more structure to concerts, quite appealing to an 'older white person with lots (?) of disposable cash', who appreciates blues music. Which brings me to point 2

The demographics of an audience are often interesting. A while back, at a John Mayall Bluesbreakers concert, J M took the time to thank 'all the ladies in the audience, you obviously only came because your fella dragged you out.' He then told us his audience is typically 75/25 male/female, which was true for the people I was with. But there were lots of (male) students/20's there, maybe as more males than females learn guitar. Then there's the demographics of Stones audiences - at Desert Trip I was astonished to see majority of audience from the 'older white people with disposable cash' group, unlike London shows (Hyde Park, O2), where there is much more diversity of age and ethnicity.

And lastly, the ticket price. JB 'charges too much anyway' because he can, just like the Stones. But I have decided not to go off that rant, it's all been said before anyway.

I am seeing JB again on 17th March, so watch this space

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TheGreek

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EasterMan

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

Now I have another reason to dislike him .Wow talk about the ole green eye coming out jeez.

x



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-06 00:31 by Palace Revolution 2000.

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Palace Revolution 2000

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TheGreek

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EasterMan

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DandelionPowderman
Glenn Hughes is amazing! Bonnamassa not so much, imo. I like him better with BCC, though.

Agreed, Bonamassa is obviously a skilled guitar player, but I think his style is too heavy handed and all his solos follow the same cliché pattern. He also said in an interview that Ronnie Wood ''is a better bass-player than guitar-player'', not very respectful...

Now I have another reason to dislike him .Wow talk about the ole green eye coming out jeez.

To me that line-up looks like my own personal hell.Glenn Hughes, really?

I totally agree. Love all the different points of view here though.

Joe does try to mix up his tours. He did the "Muddy/Wolf" tour where he covered Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters songs, the "3 Kings" tour where he did the same with BB, Freddy, and Albert King and most recently a tribute to Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. He currently plays "How Many More Times" as an encore.

Joe has also done a lot of acoustic stuff live:

[www.youtube.com]






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-11-06 00:12 by bleedingman.

Just curious as to how he crosses over with the Stones fanbase.

I think he would have made an excellent opening act for the Stones this summer.

Yeah, he's pretty damn good. His live album with Beth Hart is killer, and I love Black Country Communion (with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian).

I love Joe, seen him several times.

I know it's a matter of opinion, but mine is that he leaves most of the other current blues players in the dust.

He is a nice guy (based on interviews etc), competent/good guitarist, so so vocalist & a boring songwriter (based on the 2 CDs I bought A New Day and Blues Deluxe).

C

I personally love Joe, seen him many times. He changes his lineup and set lists and does "theme" tours. Most recently tributes to "The Three Kings" (Albert, BB, and FreddY), "Muddy Wolf" (Waters and Chester), and The British Guitar Gods (Clapton, Page, and Beck). He's doing a mini Country tour this summer and has a new release out with Beth Hart. Busy guy. Personally I think he should take a break. Last time I saw him at the Beacon, he tended to go on "auto-pilot", doing the same lines over in different songs to the point of distraction. He has been discussed here in the past. As you can see, opinions are "mixed".
[iorr.org]

I like Joe Bonamassa on his own. I like him even more when he lets Beth Hart sing.

Peace,
Mr DJA

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bleedingman
I personally love Joe, seen him many times. He changes his lineup and set lists and does "theme" tours. Most recently tributes to "The Three Kings" (Albert, BB, and FreddY), "Muddy Wolf" (Waters and Chester), and The British Guitar Gods (Clapton, Page, and Beck). He's doing a mini Country tour this summer and has a new release out with Beth Hart. Busy guy. Personally I think he should take a break. Last time I saw him at the Beacon, he tended to go on "auto-pilot", doing the same lines over in different songs to the point of distraction. He has been discussed here in the past. As you can see, opinions are "mixed".
[iorr.org]

Black Country Communion initially broke up because Bonamassa was touring as a solo act constantly and couldn't carve any time out of his schedule to tour in support of BCC. Glenn Hughes in particular was very miffed about it, which I can understand.

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bleedingman
I personally love Joe, seen him many times. He changes his lineup and set lists and does "theme" tours. Most recently tributes to "The Three Kings" (Albert, BB, and FreddY), "Muddy Wolf" (Waters and Chester), and The British Guitar Gods (Clapton, Page, and Beck). He's doing a mini Country tour this summer

Are you referring to Black Country Communion doing summer dates above?!

Love the first BCC-album. Joe's playing is good, but was never particularly interesting to me. That's just my taste in guitar playing - he's a very skilled guitar player.

He's a better fit in a group than being a frontman, imo. At least Glenn Hughes gives him a run for his money, hehe.





[www.youtube.com]

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DandelionPowderman
Love the first BCC-album. Joe's playing is good, but was never particularly interesting to me. That's just my taste in guitar playing - he's a very skilled guitar player.

He's a better fit in a group than being a frontman, imo. At least Glenn Hughes gives him a run for his money, hehe.





[www.youtube.com]

How Zeppelin didn't sue I don't know. I like the album but it sure sounds like they said let's make this one sound like Kashmir and this one like When The Levee Breaks etc.