Joe Bonamassa (guitar & vocals), Carmine Roljas (bass), Rick Melick (keyboards), Bogie Bowles (drums)

Very steadily Joe Bonamassa’s reputation has grown over the last few years, as his sold out show at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels last year proved. Blues lovers, on the other hand, got to know Bonamassa quite some time ago. Briskly, he switches from one blues style to another, from psychedelic rock over to British blues rock to the real Delta blues.

Bonamassa is barely thirty but he has been around for more than twenty years. That’s right. A child prodigy, Bonamassa was finessing Stevie Ray Vaughan licks when he was seven and by the time he was ten, had caught B.B. King’s ear. After first hearing him play, King said, “This kid's potential is unbelievable. He hasn't even begun to scratch the surface. He's one of a kind.” By age 12, Bonamassa was opening shows for the blues icon, something he has done several times now over the years.

Bonamassa’s recording career began in the early ’90s. Since then he has completed a dozen albums. Last year he released his latest album The Ballad of John Henry. Apart from the virtuoso guitar playing and blazing fast solos the recording marks a more confessional approach to his songcraft than his previous albums. Bonamassa is also an avid DJ currently manning the airwaves on Planet Rock radio with a weekly hour-long program and he also is ambassador for the Memphis-based Blues Foundation’s Blues In The Schools program. Guitar Magazine named him ‘‘The New King of Blues’.