Blues Deluxe

JOE BONAMASSA – BLUES DELUXE – CDNew York guitar phenom walks tall in the blues tradition with this third album, jettisoning fiery riffs inspired by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elmore James, and Albert Collins into the future with furious playing, a hard-rock sensibility, and a grizzled voice that owes a debt to Gregg Allman. Equally inspired by the Delta blues and the mid-’60s British blues boom, the young firebrand–who titled this CD after a Rod Stewart song penned while in the Jeff Beck Group–is able to fuse those two schools together, creating edgy blues rock. –Jaan Uhelszki