An overview : An album of outstanding solos, great vocals, awesome song writing and production, with more than a hint of the 70’s bands such as Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Eric Clapton and Deep Purple. Joe’s collaboration with the producer Kevin Shirley over the years has produced some brilliant results.
So, track by track: ‘Pilgrimage’ is first up, short but atmospherically sweet. Then ‘Notches’ hits us with an amazing blues-rock riff, as only Joe can produce. For me this is the track of the album with an excellent fast solo. Moving the beat down a bit comes the bluesy ‘The Heart that Never Waits’. Excellent rhythm section going on as well.
The title track is next up, and it revels in its 70’s sound (think Eric Clapton at his finest) and the production mix is no slouch either! Then comes ‘Questions and Answers’ with its big JB riffs we all know, and love, followed by the emotive ‘Mind’s Eye’.
For ‘Curtain Call’ think Zep and Purple at their epic best brought back to life for the modern era. As for ‘The Loyal Kind’ think Bad Company at their Blues-rock best.
The final two tracks ‘Hanging On A Loser’ and ‘Known Unknowns’ show Joes’ versatility from his jaunty playing and then his subtlety and delicacy. An album of well balanced (and well written) songs - some of his very best. In this reviewers opinion, his best overall studio album (to date!)
Listen to ‘Time Clocks’ single here : https://smarturl.it/JoeBonamassa
And Watch the music video for ‘Time Clocks’ here: https://youtu.be/Z7116ryQV-I
Or even better, listen to The Doc’s Blues-Rock Show (on RRO of course) on Monday’s from 7 pm to 10 pm (ish) to hear the full album over the next three weeks.