The Ballad of John Henry (CD - 2009)

Audio Mixer: Kevin Shirley.

Liner Note Author: Joe Bonamassa.

Recording information: The Document Room, Malibu, CA.

Illustrator: Dennis Friel.

Photographer: Rob Shanahan.

Arranger: Lee Thornburg.

Blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa gets up to his usual tricks on THE BALLAD OF JOHN HENRY, dabbling in a variety of genres, but injecting them all with a serious dose of guitar heroics. Like his musical forefather Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonamassa is both soulful and a shredder, and he brings those qualities to tracks like Tom Waits's "Jockey Full of Bourbon," Ike & Tina Turner's "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter," and a handful of rock and blues-fused originals. Bonamassa has a progressive sensibility, but that never keeps him, on any of BALLAD's 12 tracks, from rocking like no one's business.

In 2007, Joe Bonamassa titled his album after a Bob Ezrin. In 2009, he named his seventh studio album The Ballad of John Henry after one of the most enduring tales in American folk music. The difference between these two songs should signal a great difference between the two albums and that's true, to a certain extent. The Ballad of John Henry is heavy on myth-making that translates to heavy guitars on several occasions, particularly on the epic six-minute title track, whose roiling minor-key riffs, orchestrations, and excursions into acoustic instruments are closer to prog than blues. While the rest of the record never gets as overblown as this, it shares similar thick sonics and a sober sensibility, an approach that treats Ike & Tina Turner's "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" as sacred text and straightens out Tom Waits' "Jockey Full of Bourbon." This sobriety means that The Ballad isn't a whole lot of fun -- when Bonamassa sings that he's "Feelin' Good," it feels a bit like drudgery -- but this dogged approach does give the album some self-serious heft, adding the impression of weight that fits a record that feels like a summation of his strengths. His guitar and voice carry equal weight as he runs through SRV-styled slow blues, a shuffle or two, acoustic numbers, covers, and originals -- everything that he's dabbled with on previous albums is pulled together here, making for his most varied album and possibly his best, even if that heaviness means that it's not necessarily the easiest to enjoy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize