Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Such is the modern way of dealing with a problem that we immediately rush headlong into panic mode when we hear the word conversation or own flight or fight response ill-equipped to deal with someone’s alternate viewpoint, someone else’s demands on our time to which their words might demolish our own secure wall.
There is though, a difference when we hear such a mention of the well-worn phrase in art, we somehow understand that the narrative on offer will not be one-sided, that the person hoping for a conversation is not actually suggesting that it is a way of holding power over the other, the reality of the words meaning, “I want to complain and you just have to listen.” In art a conversation is a two-way street, it implies that words will be exchanged, and even in the most hurtful break-ups, there will have been some sense of maturity, a word of love passed.
For the fans of Joe Bonamassa, a conversation of any type is, especially with the guitar acting as the diplomatic intermediary or translator of universal proof, one to be welcomed, honoured as if the occurrence is one of rarity, and with the father of 21st Century Blues, the god father to whom the Blues genre owes more than it realises, a surprise single release in the form of A Conversation With Alice is one that opens and speaks volumes, no form of complaint, only a feeling of pleasure being installed into your mind.
Recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios in January, A Conversation With Alice is the debut single to come from the upcoming album due out later this year. As the introduction to what will be more than a conversation, a discerning and veritable sense of dialogue to which chapter, verse and Blues will no doubt spring forth.
In a world facing unparalleled uncertainty, it is to be thankful that the discourse of ideas and music supplied by Joe Bonamassa is of a consistent level of beauty, strength, and the interchange of Blues faith. A fair exchange is no robbery, the only precious object to be stolen is your heart as once more the conversation turns, to find there is no argument, Joe Bonamassa has once more delivered on a promise made many years before.
Ian D. Hall