Joe Bonamassa launches radio show and adds Derek Sherinian as new band member

Blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa has launched a brand new weekly radio show called The Pickup, a
unique and entertaining show blending music history, carefully curated
songs, an encyclopedic knowledge of guitar facts, and illuminating
insights into the mind of one of the world’s greatest musicians.

New weekly shows will be premiered online every Friday at www.thepickupradio.com with previous episodes available to listen to on-demand at all times.

Whether it’s unusual knowledge of a vintage Les Paul, played on an
obscure record from the 70s, or a friendly debate on how to name your
guitar, each episode weaves together witty banter, fun facts, and
amazing tour stories from the guitarist who’s “always on the road”.

Music will fall predominantly into the blues and classic rock
genres, including Eric Clapton, BB King, Freddie King, Johnny Winter
and Jeff Beck, alongside new and little-known artists, up-and-comers
and much, much more.

In other news, Derek Sherinian, former Black
Country Communion keyboardist, has joined Joe Bonamassa’s solo band as a
full-time member.  Nicknamed by Alice Cooper as “The Caligula of the Keyboards,” Sherinian
toured South America with Bonamassa in August 2013, and will continue
to feature as part of Joe’s UK tour in September.  Says Bonamassa –
“Derek is a great player and we’re ecstatic to welcome him as the latest
member of the band.”

No stranger to the music world, Sherinian has toured and recorded
with Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, and Black Label
Society. A former member of Dream Theater, Sherinian founded Planet X
and co-founded Black Country Communion.  In January 2012, Sherinian
toured Europe and Asia with the instrumental supergroup “PSMS”
featuring Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, and Tony MacAlpine.

As Joe Bonamassa approaches his 25th 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 15 solo albums in the last 13 years,
all on his own label, J&R Adventures. 

Bonamassa’s tour schedule consistently hovers at around 200 shows
worldwide each year, and a heaping handful of markedly diverse side
projects keep him thinking outside the box and flexing every musical
muscle he’s got. 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.

In addition to live performances, 2013 will mark four major
projects on the J&R release schedule: Bonamassa’s first-ever
acoustic concert, recorded at the venerable Vienna Opera House with a
global ensemble put together by Kevin Shirley; the neo-funk/jazz combo
Rock Candy Funk Party; a second album—and first tour—with singer Beth
Hart; and a career retrospective recorded and filmed at concerts at
four iconic London venues, with show being chronicled for a separate
release. 

After that, another blues-rock solo album—aka Joe’s “day job”—will
no doubt follow, and perhaps a fourth set with hard rock outfit Black
Country Communion at some point.  “Sometimes journalists just shake
their heads, and ask me ‘Isn’t it risky?,’” says Joe.  “But I say why
not do it?  Why play it safe? I want to diversify, not just always have
it be business as usual.”

It all builds on Bonamassa’s ascendant prominence of the past few
years.  Recent kudos include five consecutive “Best Blues Guitarist”
wins and a top “Best Overall Guitarist” honour in Guitar Player’s
Annual Readers’ Choice Awards, and recognition as Billboard’s #1 Blues
Artist, 2010— the year Joe Bonamassa: Live At The Royal Albert Hall was
released, featuring Eric Clapton joining him onstage.  Reviewing 2011’s
Dust Bowl, Premier Guitar wrote, “Over time, Bonamassa has created his
own universe that no longer has much to do with what we think of as
traditional blues. It’s movie music for your mind with astonishingly
great guitar playing.”  Regarding Bonamassa’s 2012 album Driving
Towards The Daylight (with guests including Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford),
Guitar World called him the “roots-based six-string’s new king of
pyromania.” Rolling Stone wrote, “His exacting singing blends with
fiery symphonic playing.” In a review for the 2012 CD/DVD Joe
Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre—Live From New York, the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer said, “He makes every note matter and resonate
emotionally.”

The first in the queue of Bonamassa’s 2013 releases is We Want
Groove, the debut from Rock Candy Funk Party, a quartet of world
renowned players who convened for the sheer joy of making music and
mutual love for genre-blurring grooves.  Featuring nine original
tracks, the album—produced by drummer Tal Bergman—is a super-tight
reboot of classic ’70s/ ’80s jazz-funk from musicians whose collective
credits include, among many others, Joe Zawinul, Hugh Masekela, Prince,
Ruth Brown, Chaka Khan, Simples Minds, Billy Idol, Tito Puente, Bruce
Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Levon Helm, Conan O’Brien, and Sheila E.  In
addition to Bonamassa and Bergman, the Rock Candy Funk Party line-up
features Ron DeJesus (guitar), Mike Merritt (bass) and Renato Neto
(keys). 

For KPCC, Steve Hochman writes, “The result is music that at times
echoes both [Jeff] Beck’s ‘70s albums and, oh, the soul-funk of Average
White Band or Tower of Power, while Neto’s keyboards in particular add
elements of fellow Brazilian Deodato and, in the more subdued
passages, the atmospheric side of Weather Report.”  Bonamassa himself
says, “It really was the definition of collaboration, one of those
records where you want to bottle the vibe and save it for all albums.
It is still one of my most fun musical experiences to date, world-class
players all around.”

Next up is An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House
(CD/DVD/Blu-ray), filmed in HD and recorded in Dolby 5.1 as part of
Bonamassa’s unprecedented series of “unplugged” dates in Europe in
2012.  Producer Kevin Shirley—a long-time creative partner of
Bonamassa’s who has produced nine of his albums, and many more for
artists including Led Zeppelin and John Hiatt—assembled a
multi-cultural/world group especially for the project, which is the
artist’s first-ever acoustic release. The Opera House in Vienna,
regarded as the “City of Music,” was chosen for the main event because
of its history and splendour, and association with many legendary
composers.  Accompanying Bonamassa on the same stage once graced by
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, and Haydn are: traditional
Irish fiddler Gerry O’Connor, who also plays mandolin and banjo;
Swedish multi-instrumentalist Mats Wester on the nyckelharpa, a keyed
fiddle; Los Angeles-based keyboardist Arlan Schierbaum texturing the
mix with celeste, accordions, toy pianos, and assorted “organic”
instruments; and renowned Puerto Rican percussionist Lenny Castro.

Joe recalls, “Originally, when I had the idea of doing an
all-acoustic concert, I imagined doing it solo. I’d surround myself
with a bunch of guitars, tell the background story of each song, and
then play it. Kevin believed the show would be more exciting with a
band and he got to work. All of a sudden, we had a five-piece group,
and 72 hours to rehearse 20 or so songs.  It was amazing, different than
anything I’d ever done before.” An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna
Opera House features gorgeously textured music made with a wealth of
rare, vintage, organic, and “oddball” instruments.  Highlights among
the 22 songs include “Woke Up Dreaming”—the one acoustic song, and fan
favourite, that Bonamassa regularly plays during his electric shows— as
well as “Around The Bend,” “Driving Towards The Daylight,” “Ball Peen
Hammer,” and “Sloe Gin.”

Bonamassa’s second album with blues-rock vocal diva Beth Hart
reprises the powerful dual chemistry they generated on 2011’s Don’t
Explain, a collection of ten soul and blues covers that both honours
and rethinks the original recordings—classics made famous by artists
including Billie Holiday, Etta James, Tom Waits, Ray Charles, Delaney
& Bonnie, Bill Withers, and Aretha Franklin. Of the sessions for
Don’t Explain, producer Kevin Shirley says, “Beth’s got a pretty heady
voice, very reminiscent of Janis Joplin, and she’s also got a lot of
Etta James in her, but hadn’t really accessed it yet.  With this
material, there is gentleness to the way she delivers the most
heartfelt tunes that she hasn’t shown before.”  Shirley will also
produce the as-yet-untitled volume two, and Bonamassa and Hart (who
recently brought down the house tributing Buddy Guy at the Kennedy
Center honours) are once again backed by the band featured on
Bonamassa’s 2009 Blues chart-topper The Ballad of John Henry: Anton Fig
(drums, percussion), Blondie Chaplin (guitar), and Carmine Rojas
(bass), as well as Arlan Schierbaum (keyboards).  They will also perform
several concert dates in Europe.

While Bonamassa is always stretching creatively and looking
forward, he will also celebrate his story so far in a major way this
year.  He and his band will visit London in the spring, and perform
concerts—that will be recorded and filmed—at each of the four venues in
which he’s has previously played, from smallest on up:  The Borderline,
Shepherd’s Bush Empire, HMV Hammersmith Apollo, and The Royal Albert
Hall. Each show will feature a different configuration of the band, and
a different selection of songs from Bonamassa’s extensive
catalogue—nothing will be repeated.  By year’s end, J&R Adventures
will release a 2-disc DVD set from each of the four concerts; CDs of
each show will come out in 2014.  

Live-on-stage is exactly the right format for a career
retrospective spotlighting an artist known for transformational live
performances.  “No one on the scene today plays with as much passion,
has as much finesse and raw talent, has reverence for those who came
before him, and has as much passion for his craft as Joe Bonamassa,”
writes Classic Rock Revisited. But Bonamassa’s still got a long way to
go, and will certainly in turn inspire many who come after him as he
continues to reinvent himself with a varied palette of side
projects—and logs endless miles “dressing up in sunglasses and a suit,”
touring the world and growing his legacy as one of the greatest guitar
slingers of all time.