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April 1st, 2012 The artist that I chose to critique was Joe Bonamassa (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), and the album I chose to work with was his album “Had to cry today”. The genre of the album is Rock/Blues with a release date of August 24th, 2004. In this album were a few other artists that joined him such as Jon Paris (harmonica), Benny Harrison (hammond b-3 organ), Eric Czar (Bass guitar), and Kenny Kramme (drums, percussions). Joe was raised in New York where his parents owned a guitar shop. He comes from a family of music. Both his father and grandfather played the trumpet. He learned how to play the guitar at the very young age of 4. Some of the artists who inspired him were Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray. I am drawn to this artist for his style of blues and rock. His music makes me feel mellow and calm. Makes me want to be at a bar drinking a beer, smoking a cigarette and listen to him play live. The culture/environmental music that I can identify in this music are the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Joe’s music is mostly guitar and drums.
My Overall impression of the album is excellent. I only disliked 2 songs from the entire album. My favorite song from the album was song title “Reconsider baby” and my second was “When she dances”. Both are slower and mellow. The songs are very calming and easy to listen too. My least favorite song was “Faux Martini”. This song was my least favorite because it sounds too much like country and I’m not a country fan. Sounds very honky tonk and that’s not my style at all. One of the musical characteristics I found is his music was texture. His music is very thick and full. It’s a part of western music and that is what Joe sings. I can identify specially the acoustic, bass and electric guitars involved.
The flow of the album seemed to go pretty steady. The album made sense to me. It seemed as though the album was long connected project but I also feel like it’s not very hard for him to create music. It seems like it comes easy for him. Only two songs seemed that they did not belong on the album. But I understand you have to mix the songs up a little to create an album. Some songs don’t have many words and have more of instruments playing that he can express himself deeply with. I sometime would rather listen to the guitars playing than listening to someone sing. I have always been a fan of guitars. Something about a man and a guitar gets to me, it’s even better when they can sing too.
One song that seems to stand out more than others is “When she dances”. This song is slower than others and almost sounds country. Like I said before I’m not a fan of country but I can tolerate the slower songs and this song is slower. This song has a melody to it. The smoothness and wideness is what drew me to the song. During the song he appears to have the same theme with the line of, “When she dances I see where my only chance is”. Even though he repeats this chorus quite a bit I don’t mind because it sounds so sweet and meaningful. I feel the real emotions involved with the song. It’s very moving and emotional. I can tell his singing from the heart.
I am going to rate this album with 3 stars ***Good. I am ranking this album this because I truly enjoyed listening to this album but did not care for the song “Faux Martini” and “Travling South”. Both of these songs are too Country for my liking. I enjoy the blues/jazz sound. It almost seems that these songs do not belong to this album. Would I recommend this album to others to listen too? Absolutely. I feel like this kind of music has been around for quite some time and everyone would be able to relate to it in one way or another. The genre of music has been around for a very long time so whether you like this kind of music or not we have all heard one time or another and can give our judgment. In conclusion of this album/artist review paper I have found a great interest in learning how music is made and the understanding of how it’s performed. Music is a true gift and a privilege to be blessed with such a talent. I truly envy the people who are able to express their emotions through music.