SoundPress.net: Joe Bonamassa & Other Musicians Explore Other Outlets as Covid Continues into 2021

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Joe Bonamassa & Other Musicians Explore Other Outlets as Covid Continues into 2021

by Rich and Laura Lynch

Call them the guitar interviews of the year!!! Musician Joe Bonamassa is busy making new fans as he has moved in front of the webcam to talk to his friends and guitar heroes during the ongoing Covid-related downtime.

Joe Bonamassa & Other Musicians Explore Other Outlets as Covid Continues into 2021

Joe Bonamassa at the Ryman Auditorium in 2018.

For those who still don't know it, Joe Bonamassa is one of the biggest names in modern blues. He was born into an entrepreneurial and musical family. At the age of four, Joe expressed an interest in playing the six-string. By five, he decided to focus on the blues as his guitar genre of choice. The rest as they say - is history.

For decades, JB has been blazing a trail with an abundant amount of original material which up until 2020 was backed by never-ending world tours. Even Bonamassa's eighteen wheelers stated that Joe is "always on the road". Yet, like many other musicians his plans have been curtailed by safety concerns paired with lock downs and partial re-openings that have made it difficult for people to travel or attend concerts.

Early in 2020, Joe had recorded his latest album at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in England. Subsequently, a tour should have followed to support Royal Tea but alas it was not meant to be. So Smokin' Joe figured out how to fill his time at home by hosting a podcast jokingly named Joe Bonamassa's Live From Nerdville. Fans will discover that Joe is an apt interviewer who makes intelligent inquiries. His queries seem to have been substantially researched or perhaps he just knows the person well. Generally, he is a good listener who adds quality commentary while providing ample airtime for his legendary guests.

It appears that JB started the program in May and as of January 2021 there are 34 episodes ready to be viewed and heard. Joe has talked to an eclectic line-up packed with A-listers such as Brad Paisley, Daryl Hall, John Oats, Rick Nielson and more. Additionally, he has turned the tables on interviewer Eddie Trunk and did a Christmas special with his parents.

Joe Bonamassa talks to guitar gods such as Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Neal Schon, Paul Stanley and Tommy Emmanuel on his latest venture into online interviewing.

Although we have been fans of Joe's music for many years we only recently started tuning into Live From Nerdville which means we have been jumping around. The first podcast that we checked out was an interview with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The two have a lot in common as both started playing professionally at young ages leading to opportunities for each to learn from their heroes which they touched upon during the show. Joe and Kenny also highly respect the rich history of the blues while building on it in creative ways that has appealed to the next generation of listeners.

Neal Schon is another musician who started working in his teens. He performed with an array of artists before forming Journey. Schon shared some of those stories with Bonnamassa during their cordial conversation. Australia's Tommy Emmanuel similarly started his career early on so he too had interesting tales to tell. The interview with Paul Stanley of KISS was another compelling chat. We learned that although Paul's parents were interested in the arts the Star Man grew up listening to classical and show tunes but eventually rock and roll got his ear and I think we all know how well that turned out.

The Collection is part of Gibson TV but it still falls under the category of Nerdville since host Mark Agnesi traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to see part of Joe's collection. They spent hours looking and talking about gear guitars and memorabilia. Agnesi arrived in broad day light and the broadcast concluded at night - thankfully it was well edited so the conversation flowed smoothly from one item to the next. Joe has an encyclopedic knowledge about his instruments and enthusiastically shared stories about many of them. Bonnamassa is doing his best to stay busy as he waits to return to the road so we presume that JB will be producing more podcasts as the year goes on.

Joe Bonamassa at the Ryman Auditorium in 2015.

For now the future of live music remains uncertain but the vaccine is being rolled out and folks remain optimistic that some type of "normal" will be reestablished. In the meantime, please support artists by buying their music and enjoy all the on-line resources that are available.

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