Surfing the Net about Sloe Gin (Page 3 of 8)

Joe, totally agree with the previous post.   I know you care dearly about your fans, hence cancelling shows with sub-par sound systems, posting on the board etc.; but you must not worry about what people expect of you.  Trying to always meet "expectations" leads to complacency, and death is just around the coner from complacency.

Sloe Gin is a great record, maybe your best.  One of These Days may be my all time favorite.  There's always going to the hard line blues critic.  They will always be there, you can't do anything about them, so screw'em.  Stay true to yourself, and you will grow as an artist.  You are your #1 fan, so don't be overly influenced by what you read here or anywhere else.

Hi Joe.

I am one of the forum members to have said things like this, because that is my opinion and the way I experience what I like to hear. Most important in my adoration for your music and playing is the fact that you play all blues styles. This is what makes your albums so rich. I have tried to get the discussion started with the other forum members. Important point in my posts was the difference between album and live. Can't wait for Paradiso next month.

On the other hand, who are we to decide what you must make, record and bring to the rest of the world. YOU DO THAT. I can feel with you in your (disappointed) comment, but don't be like that. You develop, evolve and decide what you do. I do the same with my things (not in music though) and experience the same reactions. What the heck. This is me and this is Joe Bonamassa.

Go on with what you do, I will love some songs and skip others and that counts for all your albums. That's my choise. I'm from Holland and we like to evolve and do things different too.

Eric

I've been trying to sort through my thoughts this topic since I first read your post on Saturday, and I can't seem to come up with a simple answer. Overall, there seems to be two (maybe 3) different questions you are asking.

The first (and easiest) question is the, "Is there no room for growth in the blues? Can't an artist add strings to a blues song? Does growth mean something?" question.

Without question there is room for growth and/or taking artistic license with a blues song (or a song in any other genre for that matter). James Brown saw the room for growth in Soul music and Funk was born. Chuck Berry took artist license with the R&B, and Rock & Roll followed. I'm not suggesting we're on the brink of inventing a new genre. I'm simply saying that it really goes without question that's there's always room for growth (and change) in any music.

The second question is the, "Some love it, and some have say I've gone soft" comment. Well, Sloe Gin is a somewhat softer record. That is not a declarative statement that you have gone soft. It's simply an observation that overall, some of the sharper edges have been rounded off on Sloe Gin - and that the end result is a record that is smoother and more balanced...less edgy...or as some people have commented, "Softer." I'm tempted to ask, "So what?" It's a softer sounding record. It's what you chose to do with this record, and that's fine!

The third question, and the one that's perhaps most pressing in some fan's minds, coincides with your feelings that "I can easily sing 2 verses and do an 80 bar solo - I can just rip through a blues standard as can umpteen othes - and call it a day" comment.

Your modesty is showing here. The fact is, umpteen others can't do what you do, and that's what hooked so many of us in the first place. Other artists may try to rock the blues like you, but they can't pull it off. Not like you. You may take for granted that it comes easy for you. It may not challenge you. You may have grown tired of the 80 bar solo, and are ready to move on. That's ok! But it's also OK for those of us who STILL to this day sit on the couch in slackjawed amazement, watching the ANDY Live DVD for the (to borrow your expression) umpteenth time, to hope that we haven't seen the last of your gunslinging days. So when a softer offering is released, I guess it's a natural reaction for some to exclaim, "Oh no! Joe's gone soft!"

I wouldn't worry about it too much. We all have our favorite "JB era" and that's usually associated with when we first saw you perform live, or which album we bought first. I think that's probably human nature. But as I posted before, Sloe Gin deserves to be listened to as a stand-alone recording without expectations or comparisons. It's a solid piece of work!

Joe, I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said.  For the record, I really like Sloe Gin, better than You & Me, to be honest.  And I don't find it "soft" at all, not with the spitting anger of songs like "Ball Peen Hammer," "Dirt in My Pocket," and even the title track.

Your post puts me in mind of my other favorite band, Rush.  Now there's a group of guys who could have just kept remaking one album, Moving Pictures, over and over again.  But they didn't.  They struck out in new directions, and lost fans in the process.  But their core fans, like me, stuck with them--largely because we trusted them to take us into unfamiliar territory.

You have more than earned my trust, too.  Go where you will.

Hi gary,
I noticed your comments about  Sloe Gin & about Led Zeppelin critics.  Sloe Gin seems to hold some very special therapeutic values, I have to agree with you...for me, more so than Joe's other albums. I've always loved the lyrics from So, Its Like That, but I really feel the lyrics from Sloe Gin! The combination of a soulful voice, powerful heart felt lyrics and the now standard, consistently great guitar! I like it in its entirity, but there is something really special about the lyrics and guitar work in Black Night that after repeatedly playing it, it is still giving me a little shiver right down my spine.  It is such a sweet, bluesy & sad shortenened ballad, that somehow makes me feel good!  Also, really enjoying Dirt..and Sloe Gin for therapy.

Amazingly, for being a Zep fan, I wasn't as tuned into all the "stuff" outside of their music until my 'jimmy page is god' son filled me in historically.  Jimmy Page considered Rolling Stone Magazine the best American music paper at the time, which I think made everything even more painful. Rolling Stone Magazine rarely had any kind words for their albums...they thought Led I was a very weak fill-in after the demise of Cream and no comparison to the Bluebreakers etc., (still LOVE Led I) they thought Led II was the worst of heavy white boy blues and the only way you could get through a listen was to be induced with narcotics and novocain to deaden the pain.  They hated Led III, as did many critics...Jimmy was very personally offended at that point & decided to tune out the critics...Plant was reduced to tears with one of the Rolling Stone Magazines reviews. I think Led III was a perfect example of 'thinking outside of the box'..brilliant, IMO.  I think Led's first 3 albums are classic and will forever be my favs.  I probably like them better than Led IV overall, which became very popular because of Stairway...I can't recall what RS said about Physical Graffiti.  Looking back, it now seems so totally obsurd how badly Rolling Stone Magazine dissed Led Zeppelin!!!  It seems really incomprehensible to me!

Take care gary and thanks for bringing up the Zep comment, its most relevant here.

i agree.  and i have to say i dont like how people are talking like absence of solos is a good thing and makes it more adult and mature somehow.  if a solo doesnt fit the song, fine, but all i ask is that you dont talk like not playing solos is synonomous with maturing, it isnt.  by the way, this isnt attacking sloe gin, though it wasnt my favorite joe album, i too prefer the heaver blues rock ie you and me, but that isnt what im talking about.  im talking about people saying, well sloe gin is more mature because it doesnt rely on guitar solos.  the others didnt rely on solos either, they just had them and they were good.

This thread reminds me of some of the stories my guitar instructors told me, about Stevie Ray Vaughan getting ripped for playing Hendrix at blues shows. I can't think of the last time I went to a blues festival and didn't hear a Hendrix song.

Music is personal and it's also about growth. Since the album hit the Billboard Top 200, Amazon's Top 10 and is No. 1 on the Blues Chart, I'd say most people are pretty receptive to the album and what it pertains and the artist's personal journey.

I agree with the statement part.  Not that solos suck or something, but it's like he's showing the "oh he's just a guitarist" mainstream dorks that the other aspects of his talents can stand on their own.  It's like a different mood.  Don't get me wrong, I love it when Joe lets it rip and I hope there are at least a few of these on future albums, but it's all good to me.  I guess I see it more as throwing a bone to the mainstream that he can somehow conform to the typical and expected "hit song" formulation to make them see there's more there than "just" smoking guitar.  But I still think that even without the extended solos all over the disc, there is still some really good and tasteful guitar work on SG.  In particular the solo on Black Night, while not long or particularly blazing, may be one of my favorites of Joe's in terms of taste, tone, and subtlety.