Topic: Hey - From kyle
Im a fourteen year old kid from connecticut. The reason i know about Joe is from my dad actually (he has an account on here too: thestepchild).
Anyway, a few years ago, he randomly went to one of Joe's concerts, and was amazed. He was telling me for weeks after how amazing he was. He then let me borrow one of the CD's he had bought, and I started listening to it. I had a small taste for blues before then, because any time i was in the car with him, or camping, or just sitting at his house, we would be listening to either Bluesville on his XM radio, or a multitude of CD's he had.
I didn't expect much out of the CD. The word "Blues" kind of had a bad taste in my mouth before then. As soon as the first song started playing, "You Upset Me Baby", my jaw dropped, and I cranked my stereo to the point where my mother who was 2 floors below me called my cell and told me to turn it down.
That right there was enough to inspire me to learn guitar myself. I started on my sisters acoustic (which she never played), about three months before christmas. Christmas day, my dad had a Squier Strat waiting for me.
A few months after that, my dad brought me to one of his concerts at Toad's Place, in New Haven. Now, thinking i knew what to expect, I sat eagerly on the left corner of the stage (literally within arms length of his sample speaker). The first song on the set list was Bridge to Better Days. It started with the drum beat, and then he walked on stage, and the small building went crazy. As he started playing, i realized instantly that what i was hearing far surpassed anything i had heard before. Even though it was my first concert, i still knew that this was amazing.
After a few hours, which seemed so short, he walked off stage, and we eventually left. The whole car ride back home, i was in awe.
I bought my own copies of his CD's from iTunes, and put them on my iPod. Of course, if someone ever flipped through my songs, they would ask, "who the hell is Joe Bonamassa?". Id only respond with "Listen, and tell me what you think". My friend, who is into bands like Iron Maiden, and Led Zeppelin, listened to some of his songs, and being a good guitarist himself recognized Joe as an inspiration.
The next christmas, my dad upgraded me to a Epiphone Les Paul, which he said looked just like Joe's. My birthday is also 6 days after Christmas, so as a birthday present, my dad bought us tickets to another one of his shows at the Academy of Music in Massachusetts. This show completely blew me away...no more words necessary.
I'll be honest, i am not too fond of most blues music, but Joe's music is different. I can really enjoy listening to any of his songs. They have a different feel than say, traditional blues. My dad, being a major fan of SRV got me into a lot of blues artists, but Joe stands out to me as his own genre.
Wow, thats a lot longer than i expected i'd feel like typing.
Anyway, Hi.
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