A sly percussion bed, twinkly acoustic, and spoken word intro of “Dawn Of Time” flows right into Joe Bonamassa’s single sailing Les Paul notes on “Notches,” which opens the live Tales Of Time set. The show, available on vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc, captures Bonamassa and his seven-piece band performing at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado in August 2022.
Grammy-nominated Bonamassa features songs his Time Clocks album released in 2021, and the guitar master and his band sail in and out of the blues-rock idiom, with lots of organ bleeding through, backing vocalists and the main riff-making man cutting through it all. Bonamassa can get chunky rockin’, as he does on “Curtain Call,” as much as he gets all country lickin’ on the centerpiece, “Time Clocks.”
The visual side of this collection provides more music and some stunning camera work with sweeping shots over the back of the natural space of Red Rocks to the side of the stage to dead center from about 10th row. Bonamassa stands out, his fingers providing the pyrotechnics more than any stage antics. There’s a seamlessness between the guitarist and his band, making Tales Of Time feel more like the work of a fully functional band, as opposed to a master guitarist with a group of supporters. For Bonamassa to position himself on the same level as the other players is key to a cohesive musical experience.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
