Greetings from a new uk fan

hi,
I am a recent convert. I've been a fan of blues guitarists and a bit of a player myself for over 20 years. In particular I'm a massive Clapton fan, but also I love Knopfler, bb king, Jeff healey, and just about anyone who can play a six string in a 12 bar.. I'd heard the name Joe bonamassa mentioned from time to time but never paid much attention, the label 'the new Eric Clapton' has been used by lazy journalists too many times. But then I got the current issue of 'blues magazine' with a free cd featuring Driving towards the daylight, I thought 'I like this,' then after a short trawl of YouTube , obviously including ' further on up the road' at the RAH with EC (was it me or did jb sound more like EC on that than EC did?) and those beautiful tracks with Beth Hart and now I'm hooked. I'm steadily working my way through the back catalogue and the gems on YouTube. I particularly like the 12bar blues lesson for the French guitar mag ( imagine anyone else of Joes standing taking time to do such a thing). I'm only cross that I discovered him after I made some other commitments that clash with next years uk dates, still hes young and hard working so I guess the next opportunity to see him won't be too far down the line.
I also like Joes willingness to pay homage to his heroes and not rubbish all that went before as is usually the tradition in the music industry.