Topic: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Hello,
    I am Carol Borrington and I wanted to send you my thoughts on the recent concert in Nottingham By Joe Bonamassa. Sorry it has taken so long to get it to you. Please feel free to use it or not or edit it if needed.

Nottingham Rescue Rooms-Tuesday 26th September 2006.
Bonamassa strikes back for the blues

     The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham are an intimate club setting attached to a public house in the student district of Nottingham. In size it dwindles into insignificance compared to Nottingham's grand Royal Concert Hall across the road. In music it strands as an equal. The first thing that struck me was that I was returning to the roots of music, although I did feel a little out of place and it was again as nearly always with The Blues; spot the other woman in the room.
     I did not know really what to expect from Joe Bonamassa, but the moment he walked on the stage I had an instinctive feeling that I knew what I was going to get. This was reinforced when I realised that the Bass player he had with him was Mark Epstein whose pedigree includes work with Wishbone Ash and particularly in this context with Johnny Winter. The room which previously had been buzzing with youngsters (compared to me) fell to the silence of a church. Age does not change the respect for The Blues. I have to apologise to Joe and to the reader, because I do not know many the names of all of the songs he sung, being new to the musician and the cause, but I do know what I heard musically and I was standing at the feet of a ‘Young Prince of The Blues’ and he is no pretender to the throne.
     The act opened with the drummer (sorry I did not get his name) and Mark coming on stage and Joe playing off curtain. After a short period of time Joe walked onto the stage like a strolling minstrel serenading the audience with his heart vibrating though his guitar. This was Blues / Rock played with a speed and fluidity of fingers that I had only seen before in the greats. Joe has a good solid vocal but like many Blues players it lacks the delicacy of more ‘polished’ singers, but then that's what it is supposed to sound like. For someone of only 26 years, his front man skills are well beyond his age. It took him less than a song to wrap the audience around his vocal and musical fingers. This man’s real skill though is through the guitar and if this is how he plays now, I hope to see him in twenty years from now, we have already in him a maestro, but when this man gets the real dirt under his fingernails we will have a king of maestro's.
     Sporting the Gibson in the second song, which was a standard 12 bar Blues style he made great use of finger style plucking and thumb muting to make the guitar talk and even answer back. Joe's non verbal communication in this song and throughout, were a show in their own right. His wonderful facial expressions contorting to the feel of the music. Every note expressed and felt in the facial muscles in the same way that a lead singer would use his hands and whole body to underline the music's message.
     ‘So Many Roads’ was next which featured some exceptional drumming which was quiet and effectively underpinning Joe's guitar playing, further built on by Mark's bass riff to produce the final sound. Joe did a wonderful solo with limited effects pedal use but still sounding for all the world like S.R.V. Joe likes to get close to his audience and in these intimate surroundings he was very close! Standing like riding a surfboard and ‘hanging ten’ over the edge of the stage. It was a pleasure to be so close whilst watching those fingers in action, shredding the frets with the accuracy of a micrometer. With masterful displays of string bending and sustain to further enhance the excitement of the intimacy.
     In the fourth song there was another display of great drumming which was very laid back ‘over easy’ and a good pounding rhythm underscoring it from Mark. Joe's guitaring varied between delicate and attacking styles with rapid plucking and fretwork whilst using strumming and finger style plucking. There was a lovely use of harmonics using his fretting hand.
     Two other songs which took my attention saw Joe this time with a Strat and I was amazed what I heard him do with it. The solo in this was made up of a combination of elements from Rock N Roll, Latino, Jazz and all blended together with the Blues and all played with equal skill.
    Moving up to the next song and taking up a beautiful blue/black Gigliotti GT axe, we were taken straight back to good old fashioned Blues. This was a Blues riff but played by a young man in the 21st century, the purist's dream of the old, but this riff cried and wept in the hands of a new generation.
     The Blues lives with the young like Joe, he proved to me in one gig that the blues is not an old man with a guitar; it is a music which is timeless. There is so much more I could have written, this is a guy who I would not hesitate to see again and the young generation now has a blues mentor for all to emulate.
Keep Music Live
Carol Borrington

Re: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Great review, never to late to post your thoughts...

Music is good for the Soul...

Re: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Wow Carol!!! I really enjoyed reading your post, you have a very nice way with words..."Young Prince of the Blues" and he is no pretender to the throne...like a strolling minstrel serenading his audience with his heart vibrating through his guitar...this riff cried and wept in the hands of new generation...Really very nice and truly expresses how wonderful your first show was. 

The drummer's name is Bogie Bowles and it's a great band!!

StringsforaCURE~Helping cancer patients one STRING at a time.
http://stringsforacure.com/

Re: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Carol,
I've read a lot of reviews, but that is one of the best. It's more like reading a short story than a factual documentation of an event. It's brilliant! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Didn't care for the comparison to SRV.

Blues ain't nothin' but a good woman gone bad.

Re: Joe at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Hallo Carol,

Wonderful review, enjoyed reading it.

Hope you have a great time with Joe and his fans!

Andre Wittebroek.