Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Majestic and stately, the modern Godfather of the grandiose and the beautiful Blues; in another time Joe Bonamassa would have sat at the high table with the great and the good and already have volumes of books dedicated to his output and imposing creativity sitting on library shelves and be revered across the mists of time; the down fall of such lauded attitude would be that many now would not see the glory of performance, instead it would just be another story in which older Blues fans played up to.
Instead what the 21st Century possesses is a man who brings out an album that fits so well into the times that audiences stand firm in their attachment, that the hero, the leading Blues man, the conqueror of the apathetic and fraught, is to be seen as the enlightening and conductor of all that the century hopes it can be; one of that rallies against sullied compromise and bargain basement memories, instead Blues of Desperation is the agreement that we as a species should just try that little bit harder to leave something beautiful behind.
Blues of Desperation is certainly full on 21st Century Blues, there is no mistaking the gravitas that Joe Bonamassa brings to the listener’s attention, but the only desperation to be found is that of the lyrical poetry which makes the previous century’s Blues harvest feel like a distracted and desolate crop chewed away by the winds and bitter locusts that let the genre slip eerily into gradual decline and hopelessness.
There is no fear that this album can ever walk with anxiety down that road, the sublime nature of Joe Bonamassa’s natural instincts to bring nothing but quality to the ears of the listener is coupled by his long term musical relationship with Kevin Shirley; this is the key to it all, find someone who gets you and perfection will take care of itself.
It is a perfection that is evident as songs such as Mountain Climbing, You Left Me Nothin’ But The Bill And The Blues, Distant Lonesome Train, No Good For The Lonely and the stunning album title track all emerge as distinctive, pure and unbelievable moments of aural treasure; a gratifying and pleasurable album that you could take home to your mother and ask her to set aside a date in the diary to.
Blues of Desperation will perhaps be seen in the future as the crest of the wave; the pinnacle of Blue beauty from the quiet American but knowing Joe Bonamassa, this is merely yet another milestone into which genius surfaces.
Joe Bonamassa’s Blues of Desperation is released on Friday 25th March.
Ian D. Hall