Dust Bowl

iTunes Review

Joe Bonamassa’s 2011 album Dust Bowl is a very modern blues recording, played with the kind of athletic guitar perfection that would’ve had Stevie Ray Vaughan swaying in his leather trenchcoat. The simmering “Slow Train” opens with Anton Fig (David Letterman’s house band drummer) supplying a steady foundation of meat-and-potatoes rhythms, giving Bonamassa plenty of room to ignite his fiery fretboard skills. Carmine Rojas (who’s played bass with Rod Stewart and Keith Richards, to name a few) also helps keep the rhythm solid and simple, especially on the slow, strutting title track. Meanwhile, John Hiatt and Vince Gill lend vocal and guitar duties, respectfully, on the boogie-woogie roadhouse rocker “Tennessee Plates,” though it’s the loose and groovy vocal harmonies between Hiatt and Bonamassa that suggest further collaborations down the line. Gill returns on the slow-burning “Sweet Rowena.” Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple/Black Sabbath fame also cameos on a sinister rendition of Free’s “Heartbreaker,” leaving plenty of room for Bonamassa to drop some weighty blues hammers.