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Joe Bonamassa: An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: J&R Adventures
Released: 2013.03.26
Time:
 50:37 / 51:45
Category: Blues
Producer(s): Kevin Shirley
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: jbonamassa.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2013
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


CD1:
[1] Arrival (Jeff Bova, Kevin Shirley) - 2:05    
[2] Palm Trees, Helicopters And Gasoline (Joe Bonamassa) - 2:17    
[3] Jelly Roll (John Martyn) - 2:41    
[4] Dust Bowl (Joe Bonamassa) - 5:17    
[5] Around The Bend (Joe Bonamassa, Will Jennings) - 6:05    
[6] Slow Train (Joe Bonamassa, Kevin Shirley) - 6:37    
[7] Athens To Athens (Joe Bonamassa) - 5:45    
[8] From The Valley (Joe Bonamassa) - 2:20    
[9] The Ballad Of John Henry (Joe Bonamassa) - 7:18    
[10] Dislocated Boy (Joe Bonamassa) - 5:55    
[11] Driving Towards The Daylight (Danny Kortchmar, Joe Bonamassa) - 5:16    

CD2:
[1] High Water Everywhere (Charley Patton) - 4:36    
[2] Jockey Full Of Bourbon (Tom Waits) - 5:26    
[3] Richmond (Joe Bonamassa, Mike Himelstein) - 5:07    
[4] Stones In My Passway (Robert Johnson) - 4:03    
[5] Ball Peen Hammer (Chris Whitley) - 3:34    
[6] Black Lung Heartache (Joe Bonamassa) - 3:56    
[7] Mountain Time (Joe Bonamassa, Will Jennings) - 3:33    
[8] Woke Up Dreaming (Joe Bonamassa, Will Jennings) - 5:35    
[9] Sloe Gin (Bob Ezrin, Michael Kamen) - 7:16    
[10] Seagull (Mick Ralphs, Paul Rodgers

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Acoustic Guitar – Joe Bonamassa
Baby Grand Piano – Arlan Schierbaum
Engineer – Jared Kvitka
Executive Producer – Roy Weisman
Fiddle, Banjo [Irish] – Gerry O'Connor
Glockenspiel – Arlan Schierbaum
Harmonium – Arlan Schierbaum
Lead Vocals – Joe Bonamassa
Mandola – Mats Wester
Mastered By – Leon Zervos
Mixed By – Kevin Shirley
Nyckelharpa – Mats Wester
Orchestrated By – Jeff Bova
Percussion – Lenny Castro
Photography By – Marcus Sweeney-Bird
Photography By – Philippe Klose
Producer – Kevin Shirley
Recorded By – Eric Roa

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at the Vienna Opera House on July 3, 2012. Mastered at Studios 301, Sydney, Australia.



Like you ve never heard him before. As Joe Bonamassa grows his reputation as one of the world s greatest guitar players, he is also evolving into a charismatic blues-rock star and singer-songwriter of stylistic depth and emotional resonance. His ability to connect with live concert audiences is transformational, and his latest project, the live acoustic 2-disc CD/DVD/Blu-ray Joe Bonamassa: An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House (J&R Adventures) captures the magnetism and maturity Bonamassa showcases as an artist. Joe Bonamassa: An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House, to be released in March 2013, was recorded at the historic Vienna Opera House last July during a very special two-week long unplugged tour, played to a limited audience over seven exclusive European shows. Varying from his predominantly electric blues shows, this presentation was an all-acoustic concert performance, making it a unique and very special show fans had been waiting years to experience. Produced by long-time collaborator Kevin Shirley, Joe is supported on his vintage acoustic instruments by an eclectic assortment of craftsmen from around the globe. They include: Gerry O Connor, a music historian and traditional Irish fiddler from many generations of Irish music, on Irish fiddle, mandolin, and Irish banjo; Swedish multi-instrumentalist Mats Wester will play the Nyckelharpa, a Swedish keyed-fiddle; Los Angeles keyboard maestro Arlan Schierbaum, whose extensive recording career focuses on organic instruments, plays accordions, celeste, toy pianos, and more; and legendary Puerto Rican percussionist, Lenny Castro, whose works spans genres and reads like a who's who of artists, including the Rolling Stones, Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Boz Scaggs, Toto, Stevie Wonder, David Sanborn, Avenged Sevenfold, Little Feat, Tom Petty, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more.



We have learnt a number of things about Joe Bonamassa during his career thus far: He is a truly great guitarist, he plays almost incessantly, he plays looooong sets and he is happy playing Blues or funk or rock or Blues. Oh, he is also a nice guy, wears suits onstage and loves to do something different every time he picks up a guitar.

I think I have reviewed every album of the last six or seven years and seen him in London every year since he first came to these shores so I can honestly say that I know his music better than most; this album really surprised me, as much through its familiarity as anything else!

When you see the headline ‘An acoustic evening’ your mind probably turns a softer sound than his full on Blues rock and that you get, especially on tracks like ‘Around The Bend’ where he is accompanied by Mats Webster on the Nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle) and Gerry O’Connor on Irish fiddle and his finger picking works brilliantly alongside the Swedish instrument while Bonamassa’s vocal is clearly ‘him’ but hearing him working in an acoustic setting allows his voice to be more expressive. Mind, he has always featured an acoustic segment in his live sets but there it sometimes feels like a presentational construct rather than being fully committed – here it is not only natural but ‘right’ as well.
On more familiar numbers like ‘Slow Train’ the fiddle takes his booming guitar licks and the pair deliver a number that is clearly all acoustic but has much of the power and atmosphere of the original.
When you turn to a number such as ‘The Ballad of John Henry’ his guitar power is replaced with a more rhythmic feel but the quality of the song comes through and you can see just how good a songwriter Bonamassa is, under all the guitar pyrotechnics. There is no shortage of guitar but the metal bodied acoustic makes the solo all the more involving and the percussion from Lenny Castro drives the song along with real power, leaving the guitar to do its job.
‘Jockey Full of Bourbon’ features barroom piano courtesy of Arlan Schierbaum as well as accordion and, while I would still rather hear the Tom Waits original, the song comes over fine.

I have always been a great lover of his version of ‘Stones In My Passway’ and his slide here is sublime. The number comes over with great rhythm and catches a great deal of the original. It also leads into a terrific sequence of ‘Ball Peen Hammer’, ‘Black Lung Heartache’, ‘Mountain Time’ and ‘Woke Up Dreaming’ that are just the mutts nuts.
‘Sloe Gin’ is probably the best song that Tim Curry ever wrote and Bonamassa’s version has always been a crowd favourite – this version really catches at the heartstrings and he just nails the sense of isolation and loneliness encapsulated in the song.

You could almost treat this as a Bonamassa ‘Best of’ but there has been so much output along those lines with his Albert Hall and Beacon Theatre releases that he needed to come up with something fresh and this just about does it. The songs are the true strength here, along with his playing and, oddly enough, the weakest element of the music is his voice and that may be the acoustic of the hall itself.

A surprisingly enjoyable release – he does keep on making us sit up and take notice and for all the right reasons.

Andy Snipper
© Music-News 2013



He has a following in the United States, but over in Europe Joe Bonamassa's star shines so bright he can headline Vienna Music Hall, a gorgeous opera house traditionally housing the Vienna Philharmonic. It's a large venue and one that conveys class, so Bonamassa has indeed gone the classy route here, choosing to dedicate his concert to "An Acoustic Evening," an event then documented on the 2013 live DVD/CD set An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House (the set is available in various permutations of DVD, BluRay, CD). Bonamassa didn't take this task lightly. He's supported by four musicians, all playing a variety of old-timey acoustic instruments (banjo, fiddle, harmonium, mandola, and, naturally, nyckelharpa), surrounded himself with ten acoustic guitars and Dobro, and plays a marathon set list of 20 songs. All this space does indeed give Bonamassa ample space to demonstrate he's skilled at being more than just a jacked-up electric blues guitarist splicing together strands of SRV and Clapton. He sounds comfortable in this setting, perhaps even a little liberated, turning his songs into country-blues and back-porch stomps. There are enough new colors and textures to turn the ear of skeptics who may get a little weary of Bonamassa's never-ending string of releases (at least two a year every year of the 2010s, so far), but the concert itself is also in danger of being too much of a good thing, lasting almost two hours in its DVD/BluRay incarnation (and both have additional hour-long making-of documentaries). The CD is shorter and contains judiciously selected highlights so the casual fans can turn there, but really, anybody who is a serious Bonamassa head will not be disappointed with this acoustic concert, which offers more different and interesting sounds than any other previous Bonamassa album.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide

 

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