Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre

Joe Bonamassa – Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre (J & R Adventures, 2016)

Badass rocker and blues man Joe Bonamassa is back. This time the Grammy-nominated guitarist has hit the sound streets with the double live album Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre out on the J & R Adventures label. If you are looking to get a peek of the action there is also the CD/DVD/Blu-ray available. With 22 fiery, kickass, rabble rousing, rocking blues numbers, Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre is staggering roundhouse antidote to any blues deficiency fans might be suffering from amidst this silly election season.

So if you’re Joe Bonamassa and you’ve opened for the revered B.B. King at the age of twelve; have more than a dozen records to your name including Blues of Desperation (2016), Joe Bonamassa Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2009), Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks (2015) and Different Shades of Blue (2014); play with groups like Black Country Communion and Rock Candy Funk Party and earned a Grammy nomination and won a Blues Music Award what do you do? Well, you pay it forward by paying homage backwards to those of your roots. And that’s where Live at the Greek Theatre comes in.

Paying homage to the music of Albert King, B.B. King and Freddie King by way of the 2015 Three Kings tour that resulted in the concert at the Greek Theatre, Mr. Bonamassa pulls out all the stops to these three revered blues masters with a bevy of beauties like “See See Baby,” “Going Down,” “I’ll Play the Blues for You,” “Hummingbird” and “The Thrill Is Gone.”

Backed by a seriously group of badass musicians and singers that include drummer Anton Fig, rhythm guitarist Kirk Fletcher, bassist Michael Rhodes, pianist and Hammond organist Reese Wynans, trumpeter Lee Thornburg, tenor and baritone saxophonist Paulie Cerra, tenor saxophonist Ron Dziubla, trombonist Nick Lane and backing singers Mahalia Barnes, Jade MacRae, and Juanita Tippins with Mr. Bonamassa’s signature guitar playing and vocals up front Live at the Greek Theatre is just a whole bunch of goodness that goes down smooth and sweet.

Digging into the musical wealth of the Three Kings of Blues Guitar with the musical legacies of Albert King (“Born Under a Bad Sign” and “I’ll Play the Blues for You”), B.B. King (“Let the Good Times Roll” and “The Thrill is Gone”) and Freddie King (“Have You Ever Loved a Woman” and “Hide Away”) might seem like a daunting task on the surface, but Mr. Bonamassa and company pull it off with polish and pure class with tracks like “Some Other Day, Some Other Time,” “Lonesome Whistle Blues,” “You’ve Got to Love Her With a Feeling” and “Cadillac Assembly Line.” And, that’s just the first disc.

Disc two has got the goods with “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother,” “Born Under a Bad Sign” and “Riding with the Kings.”

All listeners need to do is let Live at the Greek Theatre show you the way – where paying homage never sounded so good.

Buy the Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre 2-CD set or 4-LP set in the Americas

Buy the Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre Blu-Ray or DVD set.

Buy Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek Theatre in Europe

Author: TJ Nelson

TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.

Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.

Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.