Live at the Hollywood Bowl review

Joe Bonamassa releases an exciting new project this month that shows the bluesman taking a big risk and pushing his music into new areas. Released June 21 via J&R Adventures, Live at the Hollywood Bowl With orchestra is not your average Bonamassa live album. For this project, he invited an orchestra of 40 musicians to join him. While Bonamassa's first-ever performance at Los Angeles' iconic Hollywood Bowl in August 2023 was also filmed, the portion recorded for her new live album focuses on 11 songs that span her entire career as a solo artist.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl begins with a two-minute orchestral performance of 2020's When the Door Opens Royal Tea, the album that recently earned Bonamassa a Grammy nomination. The song was arranged for this album by Jeff Bova, who contributed additional arrangements on Live at the Hollywood Bowl with Trevor Rabin, bassist Calvin Turner and conductor David Campbell.

The cinematic tone of Live at the Hollywood Bowl becomes immediately clear on When the Door Opens, alerting listeners that Bonamassa is trying something new and trusting dozens of other musicians to pull it off. Under Campbell's direction, the orchestra takes center stage on the album's opener, but plays a supporting role on Curtain Call, highlighting Bonamassa's vocals and guitar at times and maintaining a presence more muted at others, as when he intervenes for his solo. . The addition of the orchestra is particularly powerful in the second half of Curtain Call as the musicians ramp up the tension and leave listeners in suspense until the song's explosive end.

Bonamassa and his band (keyboardist Reese Wynans, guitarist Josh Smith, drummer Lemar Carter, backing vocalists Jade MacRae and Dannielle DeAndrea, and Turner on bass) feel more front and center on Self-Inflicted Wounds, No Good Place for the Lonely and Ball Peen. Hammer as the orchestra amps up its performance, with the wind section in particular bringing an entirely new and unexpected element to Ball Peen Hammer midway through the song.

The addition of new instruments to The Last Matador of Bayonne makes the song even more dramatic than when it first appeared on Bonamassa's 2011 album. Dust bowlwith trumpeter Rashawn Ross setting the tone for the new live album through a full minute-long intro. Live at the Hollywood Bowl also finds the heightened drama on Prisoner and The Ballad of John Henry as the orchestra delicately fills the quiet spaces of both songs while building an impressive crescendo in If Heartaches Were Nickels.

While the added orchestra introduces new elements into each song, If Heartaches Were Nickels is an example where Bonamassa's original finds itself entirely transformed. The bluesman's first iteration of the Warren Haynes-penned track that he released more than two decades ago had its own dramatic build, a quality that the 40-piece orchestra slowly nurtured for the live album with backing by MacRae and DeAndrea. The song becomes even more heartbreakingly beautiful, an effective depiction of emotion and the frustrated desperation of grasping for something that is just out of reach.

Bonamassa's live album closes with one of his newest tracks and a favorite of older fans: Twenty-Four Hour Blues, Bobby Blue Bland's cover from 2023. Blues Deluxe Vol. 2and Sloe Gin, the Tim Curry cover featured in 2007 Sloe gin. In Twenty-Four Hour Blues, Bonamassa puts his guitar expertise back in the spotlight as he solos midway through the tracks and lets his fingers fly as the song comes to a close. Given how iconic Sloe Gin is among fans, this seems like the perfect song to end this particular live album as Bonamassa checks a big performance off his personal bucket list. The song features a careful balance between Bonamassa's band and his orchestral accompaniment, creating a beautiful blend.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl comes as an impressive feat, a successful attempt by Bonamassa to expand some of his fans' favorite songs in new ways while encouraging listeners to listen to the material in ways they might never have otherwise imagined. Although Bonamassas listeners won't always want the full orchestral treatment applied to his songs, this experience is one that many fans would certainly be interested in hearing again.

Review: 9/10

I can't miss the tracks

– Curtain call
– Ball peen hammer
– The Last Matador of Bayonne
– Sloe gin

A flash of brilliance

– Sloe gin