FIRST TIME BLUES FESTIVAL KICKS BUTT WITH BONAMASSA
By Gary Mack
I had the pleasure of working at and experiencing the First Annual St. Mary’s Blues Festival, on Labor Day Saturday, September 1, 2007.
These people had done their prep work - it was very well organized, well attended, and a very positive feeling emanated from the huge “Event Staff” they had. (I’ve decided that “Event Staff” is going to be the name of my next band - the shirts are already done). I understand that the money to pay the acts was raised entirely by a “duck race” they have there, I believe Memorial Day weekend. Those must be ‘mighty ducks’!
The festival started the day out with one of my favorites, The Scotty Bratcher Band and ended 10 hours later with Joe Bonamassa. In between Doghouse Daddies, Cleveland Fats (he showed up for this), and Lonnie Brooks entertained the huge crowd. Lonnie, I felt, had the best set of the day, kicking off out of the chutes with upbeat blues with a funk edge. No holding back by this group.
By 5pm, I had heard that the festival was “in the black” and the pleased looks on everyone’s faces was bigger, even after the long work days just before the event and the day of the event. The day was helped out plenty by a perfect weather day, low 80s and not even a chance of rain. Beer was not at inflated, Columbus-style prices, food was reasonable, and several bands had their wares to sell. A huge screen TV showing the acts, next to the stage, was a nice touch. Two flat screens in the vendor area were set up, and, when it wasn’t showing Michigan getting a field goal blocked by Appalachian State, it showed the concert.
After being told that the Bonamassa interview would take place at 2:00, instead of 12:00, Mike Newhart and I went into the “VIP” tent at 2:30 and sat with him and his road manager; it was more of a listen, as Joe was never at a loss for words, except for once. Honestly, I didn’t know much about Joe except that he was a shredder and was very popular with young people especially. I know he has put in countless hours with the Blues in the Schools program. I can see that kids would really identify with his sound and playing style.
Joe explained his view on ‘tone’ to us. He said that many players miss out on the mids in their playing, and that is where he makes his living. He adjusts most all of his amps and pedals to emphasize the midrange eq, rather than highs like many guitarists do. I had to agree with him on this—I’ve spent my share of nights on and near a stage, listening to a guitar player, usually a good guitar player, who was shrilling the posters off the wall, cutting through all kinds of peoples’ personal cavities.
Joe said he liked the sound and the feeling like “he might make a mistake”, undoubtedly referring to his machine-gun-like riff tones, heavy on varying melodic scales, which could lend itself to playing the wrong notes here and there.
It was at this point that I asked the question that our own Bob Thomas asked me to ask: “When are you gonna slow down and play real blues?” This was the only time Joe was momentarily at a loss for words, was mildly flustered, and tried several times to answer the question. It was also at this point in the interview that Joe stopped getting eye contact with me and looked only at Mike Newhart, sitting next to me. If you’ve seen Mike, you then know how drastic this was for him to only be looking at him. He said that he is in the entertainment business as well as playing music, that he plays was he likes, what was liked by many people. He said he likes Robert Johnson type stuff, but after three or four songs, it just isn’t what he wants to hear.
He mentioned Jeff Beck, several times, as being a big influence; Jeff is a guitar virtuoso who has made a huge splash throughout the guitar world, uses many types of sound. Joe is a real gear-head, and Mike opened the door to that technical world with the question, “What kind of gear do you use?” During this part of Joe’s monologue, he talked twice as fast, talking about pedals, tone, amps, etc. I gave up trying to write stuff down. I appreciated that Joe felt compelled to answer our questions and to really seem to want us to hear him out about several points. We were just two old fat guys in black shirts; he was really riveting throughout the entire time.
Here is a YouTube link to another interview he did about his effect pedals if you want to get more technical info: LINK
Here is a YouTube link to a 4 minute discussion by Joe about his amp setup: LINK
Of course it is much easier to go to YouTube.com and just hunt for “Bonamassa”.
Joe’s father was a guitar dealer, so he got a lot of his guitar appreciation and knowledge from this home source. Joe’s shirts say on the back, “Established in 1977”, which refers to his date of birth. Someone told me he has over 200 guitars. According to Scotty Bratcher, who had played with him the night before in Dayton, he had only a small part of his arsenal at the festival.
Scotty said that in Dayton he had three huge cases with about 15-20 guitars each. At this festival, he only had one case.
Joe’s playing and perceptions about his music push the buttons of many blues purists. One of Joe’s influences, Walter Trout, has said: “People ask me if they should call my music blues or rock, I tell them they can call it ‘Fred’ if they must have a label. The blues shouldn’t be a museum… the music ought to constantly expand and be alive.” Joe plays as a trio, and like others, he has command and a superb grasp of guitar scales, with varying attacks by his fingers, his effects, and his amps. Joe knows more scales than were left at Jurassic Park. As a guitar teacher myself, I’ve never thought of pedals as a crutch. A “pedal” is another instrument to master, if you are going to make music.
Like a couple of the other groups, Joe was building up his set, playing slow, grindy songs at the beginning - he was doing songs that were less Bonamassa and more traditional. Perhaps Bob Thomas’s question caused this! By this time, I had been there 12 hours, and I just didn’t have the energy to see his set through and left early. But, Mike said that Joe played very energetically. In the words of Mike, “Joe is not a Walter Trout—but he will be.”
Joe is not a blues purist dream act. He runs the table of sound, blues sounds, and adds excellent vocals. Joe was a great final act in this feast of talent. The previous acts ran the gamut of “pure blues” (whatever that is), funk blues, rock blues, Chicago Blues, and ________ blues (fill in the blank yourself). Don’t ever miss this festival if you can help it - it was as close to perfect as a festival can get and this was its FIRST YEAR!
