Last year January 21st and 22nd world-renowned platinum-selling and Grammy nominated Blues-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Joe Bonamassa performed 2 unique all-acoustic shows at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York City. Both performances were filmed and made into ‘Joe Bonamassa Live At Carnegie Hall –An Acoustic Evening’. An evening of extraordinary music with new arrangements of favourite songs as well as brand new, never-before-heard songs. It will be released on Double CD, Double DVD, Blu-ray and 3 LP Vinyl on June 23 and available for pre-order starting 19 April.
Check out the clip for ‘This Train’ here:
The concert was part of a special all-acoustic tour and featured an all-star ensemble of world-class musicians. Acclaimed Chinese cellist and erhuist Tina Guo, whose repertoire stretches from classical to heavy metal; and Hossam Ramzy, the Egyptian percussionist and composer, who has performed on dozens of film soundtracks and records, including on Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s No Quarter: Unledded Tour.
The band line-up also includes Reese Wynans (piano), Anton Fig (Drums) Eric Bazilian (mandolin, hurdy-gurdy, saxophone, acoustic guitar, vocals), and three Australian backing vocalists, Mahalia Barnes, Juanita Tippins, and Gary Pinto.
“Despite being among the most ambitious things I’ve done – I played with a 9 piece acoustic band – It came out great. It was a typical Joe freak show.” (Joe Bonamassa)
Everyone knows the old saying about how to get to Carnegie Hall, but Bonamassa has truly lived that advice. His entire life and musical career had been practice for this moment, and a young blues-boy finally made good on a childhood dream of playing one of the most hallowed stages in the world.
This stripped down, all-acoustic show allowed his fans a glimpse into his soul and presented a thrilling and musically dangerous spectacle akin to walking a tightrope without a net.
More good news is that Joe Bonamassa is also the winner of the Sena Performers European Guitar Award 2017 (SEGA). He will receive the award at a special ceremony on May the 21st in the Dutch city of Bergen op Zoom. Last year Steve Vai won and accepted the award in person in the same town. An impressive list of former winners of the Sena Performers European Guitar Award led the way for him: Slash from Guns N’ Roses, Brian May from Queen, Walter Trout and Steve Lukather from the band Toto. Joe said: “This is really a big thing for me, looking at the people who won it before me. Guitar players like Brian May, Steve Vai, Steve Lukather and Walter Trout are such an inspiration. I’m honoured by this.”
About Joe Bonamassa:
As Joe Bonamassa enters his 27th year as a professional musician, he continues to blaze a remarkably versatile artistic trail, and amass an authentic, innovative and soulful body of work. Bonamassa’s career began onstage opening for B.B. King in 1989, when he was only 12 years old. Today, he is hailed worldwide as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation, and is an ever-evolving singer-songwriter who has released 22 solo albums in the last 15 years, all on his own label, J&R Adventures. He founded and oversees the non-profit Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation to promote the heritage of the blues to the next generation, fund music scholarships, and supplement the loss of music education in public schools. His 2016 album Live At The Greek was nominated for a Blues Album GRAMMY®. The album was also the 17th he had a #1 Billboard Blues Album (more than any other artist).
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