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Joe Bonamassa power trio plugs in at Ruth Eckerd tonight

Bill DeYoung

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Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa. Photo: Big Hassle

How lucky we are that two of America’s guitar gods are performing just days apart here in the bay area – at a time when only a scant few concert artists are willing to go out on the road at all. First, of course, jazz fusion legend Al Di Meola blew a hole in the roof of Largo’s Central Park Performing Arts Center twice Saturday, playing a solo set each time, followed by a second with accompaniment from Tampa percussionist Gumbi Ortiz.

Tonight, the bossman of blues-riffing badassery, Joe Bonamassa, plays Ruth Eckerd Hall, with his power trio: bassist Steve Mackey and drummer Anton Fig. This, like the Di Meola concerts, will be socially-distanced according to crowd-control mandates. You’ll need to wear a mask, too.

From here, the Bonamassa train moves on to Austin, Texas, for a livestreamed Austin City limits show April 1. It’s not actually a tour; they’re only playing five gigs total.

The usually chatty Joe B has an interview moratorium in place for these test-the-waters pandemic shows; he’s just not talking. So here’s a cool segment from a conversation with this reporter in 2011, for Connect Savannah:

Do you remember the first record that turned you on your head?

Bonamassa: That blew me away? That just floored me? I would have to say that’d be a tie between the Jeff Beck Group Truth, and Free, Tons of Sobs. That’s when I knew what I wanted to be when a grew up – a Les Paul–totaling guitar hero. Free, the band totally worked for me. A simple four–piece, so simple and straight–ahead. And each part was so predicated on what everybody else was doing, that if you took one element out of the band the whole thing would collapse.

You started playing when you were pretty young – was the early British stuff a process of great discovery for you?

Bonamassa: Yeah, the Bluesbreakers record with Clapton, all the Cream stuff. Clapton is huge for me, especially in that era. The other thing for me was Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, it’s just endless.

And the American bands I listened to, ZZ Top and those kind of cats, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton. And before you know it, there’s pretty much all the grass seed you need to make the golf course. Basically, that’s my playbook. That’s the book I draw from.

It took you a while to discover the old blues guys, didn’t it?

Bonamassa: I was listening to Cream’s version of “Spoonful” before I heard Howlin’ Wolf. The first American blues artist that I really discovered that really connected with me was B.B. King. I heard Live at the Regal when I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I said “That is just a hell of a band. And what a singer.” And it’s that painful simplicity, you go “I wish I’d thought of that. I wish I’d thought of that.”

Truth be told, that really is the deal. B.B. King, everything he plays is so simple, but yet it’s so original at the same time. Very few people can communicate like that with an instrument or a voice or a song.

And ultimately I discovered the greatness of guys like Robert Johnson, who I figured out I share a birthday with, and stuff like that. Howlin’ Wolf was huge for me.

Everybody’s got their own musical path. I just took more from the Europeans and the English and the Irish, predominantly, more than I took from my homegrown, indigenous music. I’m not right or wrong about it, it’s just taste. Do you like Coke or Pepsi. Or Dr. Pepper? Do you want to go to McDonald’s or the Cracker Barrel?

What about Stevie Ray?

Bonamassa: A lesser extent for me. I appreciate the man, I really dug the man’s records and music. When I got that El Mocambo video, I thought it was wicked. But when I listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn, I get Hendrix, Trower, Albert King. And Stevie, ultimately, was able to take those influences and make them his own. To the point where when he would play, people would recognize them as Stevie Ray Vaughn as opposed to the combination of influences. And over his very short lifespan, he was able to combine that into a really wonderful style.

And quite frankly, influenced a generation of players to the point where the music was played ad nauseum. You know, you see a kid show up with a Strat, and you think OK, here comes “Cold Shot” and “Pride and Joy.” And chances are it is. You aren’t going to hear “Tattooed Lady” from Rory Gallagher.

Those ‘80s guys … I thought the Fabulous Thunderbirds were killer. And I saw Robert Cray twice in Utica, N.Y., in the days of Strong Persuader. And I thought it was just devastating.

Tickets and info here.

 

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