Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa was born on 08/05/1977 in New Hartford, New York. At the age of 4, he started to learn how to play the guitar. His father would encourage him and introduced the music of British blues rock records from artists such as Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. When he was 11, Bonamassa was mentored by guitarist Danny Gatton. At the age of 12, Bonamassa formed his own band called Smokin' Joe Bonamassa. They would gig around western New York and Pennsylvania at weekends when Joe was not at school. In 1989, Bonamassa opened for B. B. King for around 20 shows. Before he was 18, Bonamassa played in a band called Bloodline with the sons of Miles Davis, Robby Kreiger and Berry Oakley.In 2000, Bonamassa released his debut album called "A New Day Yesterday". It was produced by Tom Dowd and reached number 9 on the Billboard Blues chart.
Between 2002 and 2006, Bonamassa released 5 solo albums. They all reached the Billboard Blues charts top 10, with 3 of them reaching the number 1 spot.
In 2009, played at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He was joined in a duet with Eric Clapton, fulfilling a childhood dream. Also in 2009, Bonamassa formed the band Black Country Communion with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian.
Bonamassa would cross parts with Beth Hart whilst playing shows separately in Europe. He would become particularly impressed with her singing after watching her perform at the Blue Balls Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland in 2010. The two of them met up in a bar in Dublin where Bonamassa approached Hart with the idea of them collaborating.
In 2010, Black Country Communion released their debut album "Black Country Communion".
In 2011, Bonamassa and Hart released their album "Don't Explain".
In 2012, Bonamassa released the live album "Beacon Theatre - Live from New York". The show featured a guest performance by Paul Rodgers.
In 2013, he released the live acoustic album "An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House". It was the first time that Bonamassa had played an exclusively acoustic show. Also in 2013, Bonamassa and Beth Hart were nominated for a Grammy Award for their collaboration album "SeeSaw" in the Best Blues Album category. In the same year, Bonamassa left Black Country Communion and the band was declared to be over. Bonamassa became a member of Rock Candy Funk Party who released their debut album "We Want Groove" in 2013.
In 2014, Bonamassa released the album "Different Shades of Blues". Bonamassa had co-written the album with three songwriters in Nashville: Jonathan Cain, James House and Jerry Flowers. The album reached number 8 on the Billboard 200, number 1 on the Blues Chart and number 1 on the Indie Chart.
In 2015, Bonamassa won a Blues Music Award in the Instrumentalist-Guitar category.
In 2016, it was announced that Black Country Communion would reform in 2017.