Guitar Hero Throwback

The late sixties and early seventies were the heyday of the guitar hero in rock music. Mainly blues based, the English line led through Clapton, Green, Beck, Page, Taylor and a myriad of other talented but less charismatically endowed characters. Hendrix towered over all and there were idiosyncratic American offshoots from the world of roots and psychedelia, not to mention originators like Buddy Guy who were born survivors. These days, becoming proficient on an instrument is a bit too much like hard work when you can sample everything on a laptop but a little niche area still exists for throwbacks to continue to carve out a nice little career and please a hard core of enthusiasts of the genre. Such a throwback is Joe Bonamassa and this album Blues Deluxe hits the spot when I'm in the mood for a little nostalgia with a contemporary twist. Very much a blues album and very much a showcase for heavy wailing guitar, the roots are deep in the soul of America but the surface feel is British with the guitar work reminiscent of Gary Moore and the vocals of Paul Rodgers , despite Bonamassa hailing from New York. Probably the only Joe Bonamassa album I'll ever need, it nevertheless fills a little gap as a leftover from my rocking past.