YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 176 (Smokin' Joe 2.0)
(Originally finalized on December 22, 2025)
Preface: As teased last quarter, and mentioned just last week, I'm going to spend the next two weeks highlighting the two feature artists from the 21st century that have risen to the top of my fandom list over the past two decades, rivaling even the rock music from the '70s that I am anachronistically devoted to - starting with blues rock guitar wunderkind-turned-industry-professional "Smokin'" Joe Bonamassa.
I started telling this story when I introduced Lance Lopez during my 21st Century Discoveries theme. In college, at the height of my musical awakening, I stumbled upon an independent record label dedicated to guitar-driven rock and blues music, called Grooveyard Records. When I heard a sample from the companion live album to Joe Bonamassa's solo debut - the title track A New Day Yesterday (a Jethro Tull cover that has never sounded so fiercely alive) - I was absolutely blown away, and instantly became a fan.
This was around the year 2003 or 2004, and Joe had only three or four albums out. Since then, he's put out 14 more (and counting), with as many or more live albums released concurrently (all of which I have bought and own), not to mention the many side projects he's done with other artists. I've seen him five times in concert - at a small theater in 2006 where he walked right through the crowd; at an open air festival in 2007 where he debuted Just Got Paid (prior to album release); on the Dust Bowl tour in 2011; and in a posh concert hall in 2017 and 2019. Five may not sound like that big a number, but I don't go to a lot of concerts, so for me that's significant.
I've already paid tribute to Joe's early days on this music log, when his signature was performing exceptional covers of songs by British blues bands from the '60s and '70s. So this week I think I'm going to bridge the gap between then and now, and cover some of my favorite songs from the middle period when Joe was maturing as an artist, gaining confidence and beginning to hone his skills not just as a world class guitarist, but also a singer and songwriter. Record producer and partner-in-climb Kevin Shirley has referred to this period as "Joe 2.0", so I'm gonna borrow that label.
Monday: Prisoner [Dust Bowl, 2011]
Comments: It's been a long time since this album came out (over thirteen years!); it's wild to think that everything we're gonna listen to this week didn't even exist when I did my last tribute to Joe Bonamassa on this music log... This song is a cover, but I'm including it because it's become one of my favorite sleeper hits from Joe's discography, and also because the fact that that's simultaneously true and it's a Barbara Streisand song - not some British blues band! - demonstrates Joe's growth and maturity. "I'm like a prisoner, captured in your eyes. I've been taken; I've been hypnotized."
Tuesday: Too Much Ain't Enough Love [Driving Towards The Daylight, 2012]
Comments: From Joe's very next studio album, this song has a few things in common with our last song. It is both an album closer, and another one of my favorite sleeper hits from Joe's discography. Featuring Jimmy Barnes on vocals, it is also a cover - of Barnes' first #1 hit in Australia, after he rose to prominence singing for the Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel (which I had the pleasure to introduce on one of my earlier themes). "In the middle of the night she cried, too much ain't enough love to satisfy me."
Wednesday: Sloe Gin (Live) [An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera House, 2013]
Comments: For Joe Bonamassa, the year 2013 culminated in a mad experiment to play four shows with four different bands on four nights in four different venues in London - billed as the "Tour de Force". It marks the dividing line between old Joe and new Joe. It's the point after which his new studio albums begin to be released every other year instead of every year, and he begins to really focus on his songwriting, while presenting a more polished image of professionalism. To mark this change, I've chosen an unconventionally acoustic version of a cover that had become one of Joe's signature songs. Usually a bombastic, electric powerhouse, this stripped back version conveys a more self-reflective vision. "Well, I'm sick and I'm all done in. I'm standing in the rain, and I feel like I'm gonna die."
Thursday: Never Give All Your Heart [Different Shades of Blue, 2014]
Comments: On Different Shades of Blue, Joe brought in some established songwriters to collaborate with, in order to improve his craft. Among those is a man named Jonathan Cain, who co-wrote this song. Along with guitarist Neal Schon, with whom he played in no less illustrious a band as Journey, he had worked with Jimmy Barnes and contributed to the original 1987 recording of Too Much Ain't Enough Love. Here, Cain and Bonamassa work together to construct a positively theatrical show-stopper of a modern blues in Joe's faux-western (he grew up in Utica, NY), guitar slinger style. "I cry to the sky above - never give all your heart to love."
Friday: No Good Place For The Lonely [Blues of Desperation, 2016]
Comments: Blues of Desperation has the distinction of being the first album Joe Bonamassa released featuring exclusively original songs (seeing as the previous album opened with a short Jimi Hendrix instrumental). Do they match up to his previous output? You be the judge. For this song, Joe worked with Nashville songwriter Gary Nicholson, whom he met during sessions for Different Shades of Blue. One thing is for sure - Joe's talent as a guitarist had not diminished one iota. This song's four-minute coda builds to one of the most unrestrained guitar solos of his career. "Every time a good thing has turned out to be bad, it might be the best thing you're gonna ever have."
Saturday: Self-Inflicted Wounds [Redemption, 2018]
Comments: During these years, Joe hadn't given up on his penchant to honor the legends that inspired him as a musician. He was just off-loading that impulse to his unrelenting touring schedule. In 2015, he released the live album Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks, dedicated to the music of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. And 2016 finally saw the release of his hotly anticipated tribute to the three Kings of the blues (Albert, B.B., and Freddie) - Live at the Greek Theatre. Meanwhile, his studio albums were courting a consistency of quality that had not yet begun to feel repetitive. My favorite track from 2018's Redemption is this introspective ballad. "I'm praying for forgiveness, and I've searched around. But there's none to be found."
Sunday: Beyond The Silence [Royal Tea, 2020]
Comments: As the world buckled under the weight of a global pandemic, Joe Bonamassa served us Royal Tea - an album of original material inspired by the British Blues Explosion (also the name of a live tribute to Clapton, Beck, and Page that he released two years prior). Although a solid effort, in practice, it struggles to live up to its promise of marrying Joe's early influences with his evolution as a songwriter. Its highlight is a melancholy track that rather remarkably excels in spite of a conspicuous absence of any traditional guitar solo. "Beyond all the silence in my mind, I rise... when the storm rages."
Epilogue: Since 2020, Joe Bonamassa has already released three more studio albums. I like Time Clocks as a whole, but I'm finding it harder to pinpoint individual tracks that stand out. In 2023, Joe recorded a "sequel" to his fan favorite blues album Blues Deluxe (on its 20th anniversary), but (and this, despite containing a Peter Green cover) I fear it suffers from the mistake that blues artists sometimes make (in my opinion) of putting too much focus on the horns. Finally, 2025 has been populated by a series of "singles" from Joe's latest album, Breakthrough. If it's supposed to be his breakthrough into the pop market, I can only wish him the best, but the noted emphasis on choruses over guitar solos doesn't sit well with me. That said, the self-aware Broken Record is classic Joe, and it's the best thing on the entire album. "I've been searching for another path for too long, singing the same old song."
Honorable Mention: Black Country Communion - The Cove [BCCIV, 2017]
Comments: Joe Bonamassa has indulged in quite a few side projects through the years, so I thought I'd feature one for the honorable mention. From collaborating with singer Beth Hart, to forming an instrumental funk band (Rock Candy Funk Party), my favorite by far is the supergroup Black Country Communion, which joins Joe with singer/bass player Glenn Hughes (who was part of Deep Purple's Mk III lineup), drummer Jason Bonham (the son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham), and keymaster Derek Sherinian (who played for Dream Theater, among others). Debuting in 2010, they released three albums, then took a hiatus; two more would follow - in 2017, and then just last year. Glenn's emotional investment is palpable on this song (one of my all-time favorites) from their initial reunion album, written about the deliberate and senseless slaughter of dolphins by corporate fishermen. "From the sea to the mountains - oh, my soul, it will cry."