http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/m ... rock-0110/
Bonamassa's 'Black Rock'
Jan 1, 2010 12:00 PM,
By Barbara Schultz
INVENTING THE NEW GREEK BLUES
Joe Bonamassa has built his career on the foundation laid by white blues/rock guitar legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. He fell in love with this music very early in life — grabbed his first guitar at age 4, and was landing gigs near his home in upstate New York by age 12. Often associated with other guitar prodigies such as Johnny Lang and Eric Johnson, Bonamassa has developed a style that incorporates numerous blues idioms — a bit of Elmore James, a touch of B.B. King, etc. — but owes more to rock interpreters like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.
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So Shirley saw a great opportunity when a friend, studio owner/engineer Kostas Kalimeris, mentioned that he was building Black Rock, a brand-new studio/villa in spectacular Santorini, Greece. Crystal-blue sea, historic architecture, a wealth of cultural/musical possibilities and a brand-new SSL 9080 J-based studio designed by Roger D'Arcy of Recording Architecture. It probably wasn't too tough for Shirley to convince Bonamassa to bring his band to Greece to record a new album.
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The introduction of folk instruments is especially effective in Bonamassa's cover of Leonard Cohen's inspiring “Bird on a Wire” — a song that's been recorded by singular artists such as Johnny Cash and Joe Cocker, but Bonamassa makes it his own.
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Kevin Shirley at the studios local restaurant. Ta Delfinia. €20 will get you a gorgeous meal.
I love the studio; it's absolutely the most creative studio I've ever been in, Shirley says. There's all this traditional Greek architecture with concrete, concave ceilings. Once you're inside these things, you get this amazing resonance and explosion of sound, which is a little uncontrollable, but it's fantastic. And staying in the place and being able to go in at 7 a.m. or coming back after dinner and cutting a track at 11 or 12 at night it's a wonderful environment to be able to do that.
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[Read whole article at link]
From Mog.com -
http://mog.com/blog_post/content/265/1699723
Cover Art, Details Of Joe Bonamassa's 'Black Rock' Revealed
Hot on the heels of the announcement of the new "Supergroup" Black Country come more details of hard rockin' blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa's upcoming Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, The Black Crowes) produced 'Black Rock' studio album.
Consisting of thirteen tracks, besides the previously announced duet with Blues legend B.B. King "Night Life", the album will reportedly also include covers of The Jeff Beck Group’s “Spanish Boots,” Leonard Cohen’s poetic “Bird On A Wire,” Otis Rush’s “Three Times A Fool,” Bobby Parker’s “Steal Your Heart Away,” Blind Boy Fuller’s “Baby, You Gotta Change Your Mind,” John Hiatt’s “I Know A Place,” and James Clark’s “Look Over Yonders Wall”, as well as the Bonamassa originals “When The Fire Hits The Sea,” “Quarryman's Lament,” “Wandering Earth,” “Athens To Athens,” and “Blue and Evil."
Recorded at, and named for, Black Rock Studios in Santorini, Greece, of the album Bonamassa says, “It was the kind of record Kevin Shirley and I wanted to make. We needed to rock again a bit like on my first album. I wrote the whole thing there.”
According to Mascot Records, Bonamassa's European label the album is set for release March 22, 2010.
