by Michael Rampa

Joe Bonamassa is among our greatest living guitar players, and you may not even know who he is. Such is the peril of the blues. The difference in units sold between the No. 1 album on the pop charts vs. the blues charts can be in the hundreds of thousands. As a blues mainstay, five of his 12 albums have debuted at No. 1 and seven have reached the top spot.  The 36-year old West Hartford, NY native regularly opened for B.B. King as a teenager. He has since sold out London’s Royal Albert Hall and shared the stage with the likes of Clapton, John Hiatt and Paul Rogers.

The fact that blues players are primarily featured in guitar magazines full of technical jargon and equipment features make them further inaccessible to the mainstream. Nonetheless, Bonamassa’s brilliant under the radar career has been defined by a tireless work ethic and the simple passion for making music in the most puritanical sense. He mainly plays small venues and cuts albums whose sole criterion is to produce his best work every time. Some are destined to become blues classics.  As often as the term guitar hero is ascribed to him, pop culture anti-hero is also equally accurate. In a 2011 American Blues Scene Interview, when  asked why he wasn’t featured on the Rolling Stone Top 100  guitar players of all-time list, he replied, “Have you seen who’s on the cover this week?(It was Snooki) Rolling Stone has about as much credibility as The National Enquirer.”  The only time he was ever mentioned in a mainstream music magazine was in an issue of SPIN, when he took out a full page ad to promote his tour.

The terms “blues titan” and “the next Stevie Ray” have not unfairly been ascribed to him. His newest album, “Driving Towards the Daylight” (out May 22) is a balanced back-to-basics album that highlights Bonamassa’s signature style of roots blues with rock-and-roll guts, while honoring the traditions of the original blues musicians. “We’ve taken some really traditional old blues songs and we’ve tried to imagine how they would be done in a rock context,” said producer Kevin Shirley. “It’s a very exciting return to the blues in a very visceral way. It’s vibrant and it’s gutsy and it’s really, really rugged. The album includes special guests Brad Whitford (Aerosmith guitarist), drummer Anton Fig  and Carmine Rojas pulling bass duty.

Initial reactions from rock critics have been overwhelmingly favorable and   suggest that Bonamassa will likely become a crossover star with this latest effort. It was once rumored that at Live Aid, Clapton said to Mark Knopfler, “I think we’re in trouble,” after seeing Stevie Ray play.  After hearing Bonamassa, it is easy to see how that very statement might be repeated. He is that good.

He took some time out on the tour bus to answer a few questions.

Dust Bowl was recorded in Santorini, Driving Towards the Daylight in Vegas. Does location have an influence on the music?

We’ve done a couple of records in Santorini and we’ve done a couple in Los Angeles and Malibu, but here in Vegas, this is where it all started for my producer Kevin Shirley and me in 2005. We came here and we did a record called “You & Me” in about 6 or 7 days. The thing about it is this is a special studio, it makes the guitars sound great and the drums sound great and the people here are wonderful. It’s about taking a band that’s used to a certain situation and moving them to a different situation and you get a different inspiration.

On Dust Bowl, you  and Kevin expressed the need for a “Train song” and used the analogy to describe “Slow Train” as starting out slowly and then picking up steam. The new album seems to start out at full speed and the throttle stays down. Is this a natural progression?

It is. And we planned it that way. We wanted this to be like an extension of Dust Bowl. And we also brought in some older blues songs – a Robert Johnson song (“Stones In My Passway”) and a Howlin’ Wolf song (“Who’s Been Talkin?’)– and we really tried to re-imagine those. I love 1960s British blues and I think those sounds and those tones always seep into the songs we’re doing.

Your sound naturally lends itself to the Les Paul. What was your primary guitar on this album and what others played a role in the recording process?

My primaries were my three girls – the two ’59s and the ’60 Les Paul Sunbursts. What more does a guy need to play the blues? I’ve really pared down my guitars and amps over the years to a select number that I really love playing and that perform well. On this record I also used a couple Dumble amps, Bluesbreaker Combo amp, a ’53 and a ’55 telecaster.

In your early 20s, you said you used to grab a guitar and hit the stage running, but in the last few years, you’ve felt the need to start warming up and always have a guitar in the dressing room. Is that a mental or physical issue?

I’d say it’s both. It’s like a pitcher warming up in the bullpen. You gotta throw a few pitches to warm up before you go out on the field. You’re mentally preparing and you’re also more loosened up and ready to go out and play a great show.

see review of the new #1 album An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House by clicking CD Review tab

Artist website: http://jbonamassa.com/