Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
When the iconic is caught between Time and a rock, the influences of stories and tales are sure to keep all enthralled as the clocks tick ever onward.
When the public talk of Joe Bonamassa, the father of 21st Century Blues is just as likely to be voiced and expressed as a musician of articulate iconography; it is inevitable, and it is in that direct impression that his albums have not only given the Blues its due recognition but impressed upon listener and artist alike of the validity of a genre that was in critical danger of fading from public view.
The Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado, is a venue steeped in its own history, setting, and near mythic like appearance on the minds of many a music fan. For Joe Bonamassa to keep returning there shows its own humble but crucial part in the tale of Time, the calling ground in which his live show is arguably never beaten, and aided by some ancient tribal mysticism to which his guitar conjures without recklessness, defeat, or unscrupulous desire.
Tales Of Time sees the return of Joe Bonamassa and his band to the breath-taking scene of beauty and the visually stunning Red Rocks, and as the set unfolds, as it caresses the listener and soothes the edge of temptations unseen, so the framing of this event becomes, in short, luxurious.
Available on multiple formats, Tales Of Time is an album that captures Joe Bonamassa in absolute form, and taking its lead from the 2021 studio recording of 2021s Time Clocks, tracks such as Notches, The Heart That Never Waits, Questions And Answers, The Loyal Kind, and Time Clocks itself, lead the listener on a path to rediscovery, not only in the form of the raw and physically brilliant studio piece, but of the transference of genius to the live setting in which these songs excel.
With the DVD offering more content, a full expose of the concert for the fan to follow, including the classic Dust Bowl and The Ballad Of John Henry, the sense of timeless is appropriately gifted, a regale of stories and chronicles to which the set never truly sets and the stars are always in perfect alinement with.
An outstanding addition to the music pantheon of the father of 21st Century Blues, a timely reminder that the genre has so much to inspire others with, and if icons can meet with added drama, then Joe Bonamassa and the Red Rocks Amphitheatre are not only suited, they are forever, and intrinsically linked.
Joe Bonamassa releases Tales Of Time via Provogue/Mascot Label Group on April 14th.
Ian D. Hall