Joe Bonamassa – 'Royal Tea'

It’s fair to say that Joe Bonamassa has done better than “ok” in a recording career that started in 2000 with his debut album, ‘A New Day Yesterday’. As well as upgrading venues from the likes of the Glasgow Ferry to selling out the Royal Albert Hall, he has released 14 studio albums, 16 live albums and 14 other studio and live albums with projects such as Beth Hart, Black Country Communion, Rock Candy Funk Party and Sleep Eazys. This doesn’t include miscellaneous recordings such as Christmas albums and guest appearances for other artists! That’s a phenomenal output for someone who is still only 43 years of age! During this career, Bonamassa’s love of British Blues, particularly from the 60s ‘blues explosion’ era, has been apparent on some of his albums and during live gigs. Covers of songs from British artists such as Free, early Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith and Jeff Beck to name a few nod towards this love and that’s before we consider his 2018 live album, ‘British Blues Explosion Live’. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Bonamassa’s latest album ‘Royal Tea’ is pretty much a musical love letter to his British blues heroes.

Released on 23rd October 2020 (almost exactly 20 years to the day since his debut was released), ‘Royal Tea’ was recorded where many legendary classic albums were born; London’s Abbey Road Studios. It’s no doubt that this venue was deliberately picked by Bonamassa so he could immerse himself in the history of British music, helping to find that typically British blues sound made famous by some of his heroes such as Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. With long-time producer Kevin Shirley at the helm, Bonamassa was joined at Abbey Road by Anton Fig (drums), Michael Rhodes (bass) and Reese Wynans (keyboards), whilst recruiting ex-Whitesnake guitarist (and British blues royalty!) Bernie Marsden, piano wizard Jools Holland, Dave Stewart from Eurythmics and Cream lyricist Pete Brown to help add some authentic British flavour to proceedings! But can ‘Royal Tea’ elevate this American bluesman to the revered heights of his British blues heroes?

Album opener When One Door Opens starts with a grandiose orchestral score that leads to Bonamassa’s guitar kicking in with a moody, descending, chunky, bluesy riff. This makes way for a quieter, slower verse where the vocal is almost whispered for the first few bars. Reese Wynan’s organ joins the orchestral strings in the background to create that 60s-era feel, before the track goes in a completely different direction midway through. A marching drum and bass sound with wind instruments thrown in for good measure eventually burst into a powerful, all out rocking riff that I couldn’t help but head-bang along to! It was a most unexpected surprise and the guitar solo is played with equal power! The female backing singers harmonising against Bonamassa’s lead vocals add an extra edge to the track, which eventually slows straight back down to the more pedestrian pace it started with as it approaches the end. It’s a great start to the album with a very different feel to the last few albums by the artist.

Title track Royal Tea is up next; a track allegedly inspired by the media furore surrounding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle controversially leaving the Royal Family for a new life in North America as alluded to by lyrics such as “Hiding out in your palace. Diamonds dripping from your chalice. The honey’s sweet but the bees will sting”. Musically, it’s a standard, bluesy stomp of a track with the female backing vocalists continuing to ply their harmonising trade whilst Bonamassa delivers lyrics such as the aforementioned in a seething manner! Special mention to the rhythm section of Michael Rhodes on bass and Anton Fig on drums for keeping this track moving along when the pace could easily have dragged a bit, with Reese Wynans’ magnificent organ sound adding extra interest. Of course, there’s also the bluesiest of bluesy guitar solos by the man himself that most definitely evokes the feel of a ‘spit and sawdust’ blues club. That’s what we’re looking for!!

As mentioned before, ex-Whitesnake guitarist and British blues maestro Bernie Marsden was recruited to ensure the album had that authentic British blues feel to it and his presence is more than apparent on third track Why Does It Take So Long To Say Goodbye. This song could easily have appeared on the early Whitesnake albums of the 70s, with it’s sad sounding, wailing guitar intro and lyrics of lost love and separation. When he sings “When I leave, I leave for good. No coming back like you said I would”, it’s sang so convincingly that it makes me wonder just how personal this track is to Joe Bonamassa. If the slower first half of the song signifies the pain of the split in a relationship, then the higher tempo of the second half is the subsequent anger! The guitar solo is short and sweet but the emotion can be felt emanating from the speakers before the forlorn, aching guitar returns to see the track out. For me, this is one of the standout tracks and is a monument to the great British blues artists of the 60s Bonamassa hoped to emulate on this album. Success!

Bass player Michael Rhodes must be one of the most sought after session players in the industry judging by his impressive discography. So it’s only right that after six decades of playing for others, he gets his chance to shine during the intro to Lookout Man with a raw, thick, sludgy bass line that shakes the speakers with every play and repeats throughout the track. There’s a really menacing sound to this one and it’s made even more so by the aggressive manner in which Bonamassa spits out the lyrics. The harmonica adds a real ‘Devil at the Crossroads’ blues feel and Anton Fig’s drumming is as tough as nails, particularly towards the end. Next track High Class Girl is a complete contrast and is a much cheerier, happier sounding affair! The track bounces along in a blues-shuffle style, with a dancing bass line, steady drumbeat and some more magnificent Hammond organ that leads to a fantastic bluesy guitar solo. There’s a Canned Heat ‘On The Road Again’ kinda vibe and I found it very difficult not to move my (stiff!) hips and click my fingers to this whilst letting out a high pitched ‘whoo’ at the end! It’s the type of blues song that just makes you feel happy rather than… well… blue!

As the album passes the midway point, Joe Bonamassa provides a slight insight into his life living in Hollywood in A Conversation With Alice, a track written about a few sessions he had with a therapist in Beverley Hills. I have no idea whether her name was actually Alice or not… but a song about therapy is so very Hollywood! Nevertheless, he claims it was “the best thing I ever did” and if it helped him to write music such as this track, it was money well spent! Starting with a catchy guitar riff that is eventually mirrored by the bass before slowing to a more simple voice, organ, drums combo for the verse, this is Bonamassa’s voice at its best. His pitch and tone are perfect throughout the track and there’s definite commercial radio potential. This is followed by next track I Didn’t Think She Would Do It, a phrase that is often uttered by exasperated men throughout the world! The pace is steady, fast and constant throughout, with what can only be described as a galloping bass leading to the verse. I can hear classic Rolling Stones throughout the verse and chorus of this song, particularly in the vocal delivery and that’s no bad thing! I mean, if you’re going to write an album designed around British blues rock, it’s expected that the Stones will have some kind of influence!

To my ear, Beyond the Silence has a very un-British feel to it and actually evokes more images of a Wyatt Earp-era cowboy town in Texas with a saloon and gallows as opposed to 1960s London!

Nevertheless, it’s a very strong track with a foreboding feeling throughout that drags you in from the first chord to the last. There’s some haunting piano in the bridge section and when the track bursts to life, all of the musicians show incredible restraint when it would be have been easier to showboat. There’s no blistering guitar solo either and despite most people listening to a Joe Bonamassa album for his great skill on the six strings, I think this track is all the better without it.

The pace and mood pick up nicely for penultimate track Lonely Boy… and considering he was involved in the album, I’ll be shocked if Jools Holland’s fingerprints aren’t all over this one! If you’ve ever watched the long running BBC music programme ‘Later… With Jools Holland’, you’ll understand what I mean! This is the type of catchy jive that Holland often plays in a jam with some of the guests towards the end of the programme… and with Bonamassa on this album, well, what a a jam it is! This is quite simply a track that invites you to dance and have fun with the rhythm section of Rhodes and Fig steady as a rock, allowing the others to do their stuff! It has a very improvised feel to it, as if they’ve agreed the lyrics and a basic chord structure and then simply pressed record! The piano and guitar interplay is outstanding and leads nicely on to final track, Savannah. Now, I think it’s fair to say that Savannah owes more to the likes of the Allman Brothers Band or Marshall Tucker Band rather than Cream or Free. It’s a mid-paced country-rock song rather than the blues Bonamassa is known for and certainly doesn’t sound overly British to me. But nevertheless, it’s still a fantastic track with some great guitar work and a sing-along chorus that will stick in your mind long after the last note is played. Left field? Maybe. A great track to end on? Oh yes!

Over the past 20 years, Joe Bonamassa has established himself as one of the greatest living blues-rock artists. That’s a big claim to make but is ably supported by successive, positive album reviews, consistently sold-out live shows and the fact that he is so in-demand as a guest musician or with other side projects. Quite frankly, his musical output of roughly two albums of some kind each year is nothing short of prolific. But like everything in life, it’s more about the quality rather than the quantity. His albums over the past few years have still been very good but have maybe just lacked that sparkle that he worked so hard on earlier in his career. With ‘Royal Tea’, not only has that sparkle returned… but it is positively gleaming! This is a true return to form with some great songwriting and stellar musicianship throughout. Joe Bonamassa hasn’t just successfully emulated some of his British blues heroes; he has evoked their spirits and raised himself up onto the same lofty pedestal.

‘Royal Tea’ is indeed the album where Joe Bonamassa crowns himself as the current King of Blues-Rock’. All hail King Joe!!