So on Saturday, the weather was cooler and the knee wasn’t bad, so I decided to run. Now I needed something to listen to on the iPod, I find that on genre that works well is metal! I love to run to Dragonforce, hard driving amazing guitars. So I turned to an amazing guitarist Joe Bonamassa and his new band Black Country Communion and their new album Black Country Communion 2. When Andrew gave me the album the other day to listen to, thinking that it hasn’t been that long since their debut album, I said, oh they had tracks left over from the first album. He said no that they went back in the studio and recorded new tracks! Anyway it only took the first track “The Outsider” to see that this album is every bit as good as the first album and probably better! The second track “Man in the Middle” keeps up the intensity as Bonham’s drumming provides that strong driving beat, Hughes vocals soar and then Bonamassa does his magic! Bonamassa takes over the vocals for the next track “The Battle for Hadrian’s Wall” and provides good vocals as usual! If the next track “Save Me” has a Led Zeppelin feel that’s because the song was started by Jimmy Page and Jon Paul Jones during their 2007 Reunion show. Jason Bonham kept playing the riff for Hughes and he was intrigued finally he called Bonamassa over to his house and they finished the song and like they say “the rest is history” well at least a great song. Now at this point I was just past the two mile point and my heart rate was climbing, so over the rest of the run I paid more attention to that than the music! I do remember “Smokestack Woman” though and a great blues ballad “Little Secret” and a few more vocals by Bonamassa! All and all it’s a great album and now has moved into the number one spot on the UK Rock album chart!
For the record to remind all Black Country Communion is composed of Glenn Hughes on bass, Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Jason Bonham on drums and Derek Sherinian on keyboards. The album was produced by Kevin Shirley. In an article at Billboard.com Jason Bonham says: Black Country Communion ‘Went from a Side Project to a Band,’ Says Bonham and Glenn Hughes agrees:
Hughes concurs with Bonham that Black Country Communion has turned into a more cohesive group between albums, too. “The chemistry was there from the beginning,” he notes. “It’s a really easy band to play in. I think there was some fear we were going to implode — one album and that’d be it. Obviously we’re not. We’ve got tour dates booked, plans for DVD recording this summer. Obviously this is a real band, which is something we all wanted to be in.”
So check them out …. as for me I’m checking out another band I
heard on Andrew’s iPod Voodoo Circle – Good Stuff! on and after running the first two miles at 9:40 pace the second were at 10:10 pace for an overall pace of around 9:50!
Here’s the video for “Man in the Middle”!