A New Day Yesterday

Something of an odd release, A New Day Yesterday Live documents the final date of a 60-day jaunt during blues guitar prodigy Joe Bonamassa's 2001 tour in support of his major-label debut bearing the same title, and (this is the odd part), released just a few months earlier. Just why his record company felt the need for it, then, is up for grabs (more promotion...thinking Bonamassa's virtuosity came across stronger in a live setting...who knows?), but what's clear is that the young guitarist's trio lacked nothing in terms of on-stage presence and performing tightness as compared to what was heard on said studio album. Their kinetic reinventions of oft-overlooked '70s rock classics such as Free's "Walk in My Shadows" and Jethro Tull's "A New Day Yesterday" instantly distinguish Bonamassa from teenage blues competitors such as the overly Stevie Ray Vaughan-reliant Kenny Wayne Shepherd or the more purist (and technically less dazzling) Jonny Lang, and his better-conceived originals ("Colour & Shape," the wonderful "Miss You Hate You") stand up under any circumstance -- but again, so what? Didn't listeners just buy their studio versions a few months ago? Yes, there's the additional benefit of extended jamming and incendiary guitar soloing to expand upon their themes, but suffice to say that this set need only be sought out by Bonamassa fanatics, or, in the event that they've yet to hear the studio version, first timers, too -- why not? ~ Eduardo Rivadavia|