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Joe Bonamassa is widely regarded to be one of the best blues musicians in the business. In 2019, a Guitar Player reader poll named him the top blues guitarist in the world — ahead of Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks and Buddy Guy. That respect has translated to a heavy touring schedule and a string of successful recordings. In April, Bonamassa reached No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart for an astounding 26th time with Tales of Time, a live recording of his 2021 album Time Clocks recorded last year at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
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But the upstate New York native — a former child prodigy who opened for blues great B.B. King when he was just 12 years old — speaks with humility and admiration about his bandmates.
“[They’re] better than me — all of them,” he tells Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast. Keyboard player Reese Winans “gets a standing ovation every night,” says Bonamassa before a recent concert in Charlotte, N.C. “He gets the biggest ovation of the night. He’s a living legend [who has] played with Stevie Ray [Vaughan] and Delbert McClinton. He’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee [as a member of Vaughan’s band, Double Trouble]. Every band has to have a Hall of Famer. He’s our’s.”
Guitarist Josh Smith is a “better player than I am,” he continues. “He’s killer.” He calls both drummer Lamar Carter (Raphael Sadie, Demi Lovato) and bass player Calvin Turner (Marc Broussard, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews) “amazing” musicians. Backup singers Jade MacRae and Danni D’Andrea, who have worked with Liam Gallagher and Prince, respectively, are “saints” for tolerating his singing voice, he says self-effacingly.
The great musicians tend to attract talented musicians to their touring bands. That gives Bonamassa a superb cast to help re-create his songs and transform the studio recordings for the live setting. “We have some fun with it,” he says. “Bring it up, bring it down. Like in the case of ‘Self-Inflicted Wounds,’ our great vocalist Jade MacRae takes a vocal solo at the very end and it brings the house down.”
Still, Bonamassa knows he’s the reason people buy tickets to his shows. “You’re never gonna see me go, ‘Well, I don’t really feel like playing guitar, and I’m just gonna let Josh take all the solos, or I’ll we’ll just we’ll just cut all the guitar, so I’m just gonna sing and play acoustic guitar.’ There will be a revolt, you know? There will be 2,500 people revolting tonight, leaving. And that’s because I know the audience. They want to hear a big guitar solo. So they want to they want to hear me shred over blues changes. And it’s something I get criticized for doing. But it’s also what people want to hear. I don’t question that.”
Bonamassa is currently on tour in Europe and will perform in Germany on May 5-6, Luxembourg on May 7 and France on May 10. He will play five dates in the U.K. from May 9-14 before returning to the U.S. to perform at the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, Wash., on May 26 and the Backroad Blues Festival with Kenny Wayne Sheppard in Bend, Ore., on May 27.
Listen to the entire interview with Bonamassa at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeart, Amazon Music or Audible.
Our ‘Global Powerhouse Award’ recipient Thalía talks about what the award means to her, how she got her start in music, paving the way for other women in the industry, her new album ‘Thalia’s Mixtape’, and more!
Get your tickets to Billboard’s #MujeresLatinas in Miami, for May 6th, and tune in to watch it on Telemundo on May 7th at 9PM/8C.
Jessie Ware had a straightforward goal with her new album That! Feels Good! (released April 28) – “The goal was to make people dance and make them feel sexy and romantic,” the pop singer-songwriter tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen to her full interview, below).
The new 10-track set, with production by Stuart Price and longtime collaborator James Ford, is a “delicious disco opus” and follows her warmly received 2020 album What’s Your Pleasure. The latter marked her highest-charting effort on the Official U.K. Albums chart (peaking at No. 3) and garnered Ware her first BRIT Award nomination for British album of the year.
“I wanted [the new album] to feel more live than What’s Your Pleasure?,” Ware continues, “but I still wanted there to be groove, and funk and soul dictating it – and elements of disco, of course. But to feel like a dance record, but a looser dance record, with a bit more color. That was the intention.”
So what’s changed for Ware in the nearly three years between What’s Your Pleasure? and That! Feels Good!? “I feel really centered and excited about putting music out,” she says. “I don’t kind of have that fear like I had before. What else has changed? The podcast [her hit show Table Manners, co-hosted with her mother Lennie Ware] has carried on. I’ve got another baby… I don’t know! I feel like a changed artist since the reception of What’s Your Pleasure?”
Ware will take That! Feels Good! on the road in the United States later this year, with a string of dates beginning in Chicago on Oct. 5. Before that, she’ll play the OUTLOUD @ WeHo Pride festival on June 2 in West Hollywood, Calif. in celebration of Pride Month.
Also on the new edition of the Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve got chart news on how Morgan Wallen continues to lead the Billboard 200 albums chart for an eighth week with One Thing at a Time, how Taylor Swift makes a splash on the list with a stunning 10 albums in the top 100 of the chart, and how for the first time ever, there are two regional Mexican songs in the top five (and 10!) of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
Our “Agent of Change” recipient Goyo talks about what the award means to her, the state of afro-latina representation in latin music, what change looks like to her and more! Get your tickets to Billboard’s #MujeresLatinas in Miami, for May 6th, and tune in to watch it on Telemundo on May 7th at 9PM/8C.
Motown legend Smokey Robinson stopped by Billboard News to chat with Billboard’s Executive Director of R&B / Hip-Hop Gail Mitchell. He opened up about the reaction to his new album ‘Gasms’, what it’s like to be sampled by other artists, the Spanish language EP he is working on, and more!
It’s Friday which means we’ve got some new music! Kesha dropped two new singles, SEVENTEEN’s ‘FML’ is finally here, Jack Harlow surprised everyone with a new album called ‘Jackman’, and more! Gayle credits Taylor Swift with helping her put backlash into perspective when it comes to her success or her polarizing smash hit “abcdefu.” Doechii shared some of her Florida slang with us. And more!
Did you know Karol G’s album ‘Mañana Será Mas Bonito’ became the first all-Spanish language album by a female artist to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts? And it’s a reggaeton album? Reggaetón has grown in popularity over the years. But what is reggaetón and why is it considered a male-dominated space? Which female artist broke barriers in the genre? And who are the women taking over? This is Billboard Explains: Women in Reggaetón.
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Selena Gomez’s ‘Selena + Chef’ has been nominated for Outstanding Culinary Series and Kelly Clarkson’s ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’ leads all talk series with 11 nominations. Billboard News’ Tetris Kelly caught up with Doechii after her set at Coachella. Ice Spice, Nessa Barrett, PinkPatheress, & RAYE are the face of the new Skims campaign. And more!