Surfing the Net about Sloe Gin (Page 7 of 8)

Hear! Hear!

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

I criticize that criticism!  Those critics are not wiser, bud! IF you don't think Joe Bonamassa's MoJoe and Karma have put some funky gyroscopic precession on the "normal" spin of the Blues World, first of all you aren't paying attention, and secondly if you are, you are crying for skilled nursing for Blues to remain well cared for, but nonetheless feeble and grumpy and maybe just a little boring and insignificant!  I have been waiting a couple of years to bring this back ...Take a look at the Budweiser "True Music" logo....Now look at Joe Bonamassa's autograph signature...now back at that logo...See that crown? See the heir when he comes to your town!!!
Rock On & Keep the Faith (go ahead and change style at will ),
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Exactly the reply I'd expect from a platinum rocket.

Are you allergic to Kashmir???  Did Page & Plant give the blues lead poisoning? We just disagree, not atacking your whole thought process, just strings being considered a no-no.  It used to be strings and Rock weren't supposed to mix-PERIOD!  Lots of examples of that premise falling away...I say that's no-no more is all.

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

You should enjoy Dwayne Burnside Greek.  I really like your description of So Many Roads'riff as "monumental".  I wonder if you can hear that with some orchestral strings playing slow chording changes?! Just kidding! Believe me I love down & dirty whether cards, music, etc. as much and often more than anyone.  I just happen to have a uh, soft side too.  It's how I rationalized putting on some weight-empathizing with pregnancy and getting in touch with my feminine side!!! Incidentally, when it was first released, I had a hard time convincing some people Sweet Tea was worthy of a Grammy nomination at the very beginning, until they put their wine glasses down and took their reading glasses off and put their hearing aids in...SO, like the Delbert McLinton album that beat out Buddy, my jabs are always Nothing Personal, just personal opinion in contrast to someone's else's contrasting! ...One thing time has taught is we need not worry about pleasing the gods to receive good fortune & good times...Sweet Tea and Sloe Gin no matter how we diagnosed-Two different "dramatic" departures in separate veins but still routing back to the blues heart where it gets some fresh oxygen & "pumps up" the red-blooded music fan. I wonder how they taste mixed together???!!!
Rock On Top of the Acropolis & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Clapton is a wonderful example of how an artist should be allowed to progress in their own manner. His albums vary so much in style, but hardly ever diminish in quality. From the Cradle was an extravaganza for the blues. THE British master doing blues as it should be done. However it does not encapsulate Clapton's style at all, Pilgrim and Reptile both proved that Clapton wasn't reducing his musical vocabulary by any means. Did Clapton produce these three albums to appeal to a larger audience? I seriously believe he produced them because he wanted to, which is what Joe should do. A "world blues" album certainly sounds unusual, and I would not have any complaints about hearing another Blues Deluxe, but if Joe wants to explore the world of blues then that is the album he should create.

I went to see Clapton last year, he's touring with Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II in his band, which has added so much texture to his music. He also played a fantastic set list of numbers from Derek and the Dominoes' Layla: a masterpiece almost on a level with the Beano album in my opinion. Both myself and my Dad were blown away by the gig, himself being a huge fan of early Clapton, but as we left we caught one guy going on about how crap he thought the gig was. His complaint essentially: that it wasn't Unplugged.

The point of this being that as an artists fanbase grows stylistically, they will never be able to constantly satisfy all aspects of that fanbase at once. Walter Trout is hugely respected and admired, but in small circles because he doesn't branch out much. He's another absolute master of the blues and one of my favourite guitarists and live acts around. However he plays in quite a constrained area of the genre. I'm not saying he 'should' expand his playing styles, he chooses freely what to play, but by playing 'his' blues he's not going to estrange his existing fanbase.

Sloe Gin is a fantastic album, and most who disagrees fail to see that Joe is more than a blues player, he's a musician and therefore unconstrained by 12 bars and three chords. It's not my favourite album of Joe's; I love Blues Deluxe too much and You and Me is incredible; Sloe Gin suffers in it's pace. Putting Around the Bend between Another Kind of Love and Black Night was a mistake, as Sloe Gin builds up the tempo, Another Kind of Love hits with it's full on Free-esque style, and Black Night would have been a nice way to wind down again. Instead the listener is presented with the jingling, melodic... drag until the next epic. Not to dismiss Around the Bend as a bad number, it just loses out in the flow of the album. Joe knows this, as apparent here:

source: http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/003581.html

I think I read in the CD sleeve that Joe wanted to reinvent the idea that an album be something you put in at listen to from track 1 to the end as one full presentation of music. While Sloe Gin is a collection of fantastic numbers, I think it misses this target by combining too many styles, so that it never clicks with a listener in just one mood.
Returning to Clapton, he is an artist who's albums have a certain consistency throughout. Each album is stylistically different, but can be listened to at once due to each number belonging to the same area of music. I believe I have a broad taste in music, but that does not mean I always wish to appease all facets of my musical taste at once, Clapton's albums are capable of suiting me dependent on what I feel like listening to at the time. You and Me and Blues Deluxe both do that for me. If I want blues I have the latter, if I want rock I have You and Me. Sloe Gin just doesn't quite cut it like that for myself.

Anyway, I hope any criticism is taken as being in the best of interest. I am a huge fan of Joe's and will show interest anywhere he wants to take his music. He's a true artist who should follow his own interests rather than worrying about the critics or even the fans.

that's true... and I hope that Joe doesn't do mistake like Clapton did, which he knows today, had been mistakes... but those guys of the 1st rock-generation didn't know better... they were on unknown ground... and just took life as it came up to them... IMHO at least...

I am sure Joe is smart enough to go his way and not getting misleading sidetracked by the other gender and dangerous substances...

I am very impressed how Joe went his way up to now...

Greetings
PIT... :-)

Well I am not shure whether he digs all the drugs and alcohol stuff he did in the 70, if he looks back... hence his performances of this period... that's what I meant with mistakes...
I am curious on the book... I don't have it yet...