[rating=3.50]
Blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa was known to many music fans over the years, but a 2009 sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall – featuring Eric Clapton – definitely put him into another sphere of acclaim. And so it is with Dust Bowl that Bonamassa sounds like a great axe man with a set of pipes that are vintage Paul Rodgers. This is especially evident on the lean, solo-friendly “Slow Train” which would probably come across amazingly in a live setting. However the ensuing title track definitely is a tamer, moodier number that should be moved down the running order as it’s a breather at best.
Fortunately things pick up with a rowdy cover of John Hiatt’s “Tennessee Plates” featuring a cameo from Mr. Hiatt himself on the bubbly, bouncy nugget. Yet that flow is soon curtailed by the ebb of the slow, downbeat “The Meaning Of The Blues” with Bonamassa’s vocals more of a selling point here than the rather busy musical arrangement even with the fine picking he gives at times.
The big highlight has to be without question the Appalachian-tinged “Black Lung Heartache,” But a close second is when Glenn Hughes lends his talent to the ‘70s era blues rock of “Heartbreaker” (not the Zeppelin warhorse) but one with its moments.
Near the homestretch Bonamassa completes the rather eclectic trilogy of guest spots with country star Vince Gill on the shuffling “Sweet Rowena” but the guitarist shows his wares on the very solid “The Whale That Swallowed Jonah” And it is the wares which makes this Dust Bowl gleam.
