photos by John Patrick Gatta
On August 9, lovers of the blues and six-string mastery were treated to a guitar summit from Gov’t Mule and Joe Bonamassa at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.
With the sun slowly setting during Mule’s 12-song set, the quartet mixed covers with its own catalog of material including opener “World Boss.” The band also visited its past with “Mother Earth” and “Mule” from 1995’s self-titled debut and “Shake Our Way Out,” off of its last studio release, Peace…Like a River. Midway through the performance Mule also debuted an appropriate cover for the evening—Bruce Springsteen’s “Youngstown”—which had a slight country shuffle to it rather than the original’s angry, mournful tone.
The Sunday show took place on the 31st anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s passing. This also concluded the commemoration of The Days Between, which begins on August 1, the date of Garcia’s birthday. Warren Haynes marked the occasion by performing three songs Garcia sang with the Grateful Dead: "Bertha," "Loser" and "Shakedown Street” and played them on Garcia’s famed Wolf guitar.
The third of these tunes also featured Bonamassa's backup singers Dannielle DeAndrea and Jade MacRae. Bonamassa himself then appeared and joined in on Jeff Beck’s “Freeway Jam.”
Later, Haynes guested during Bonamassa’s set, performing “If Heartaches Were Nickels,” a song that connected the two. Haynes wrote the tune and Bonamassa recorded it for his first solo album.
After playing in the Youngstown area numerous times over the past 23 years, Bonamassa has earned a devoted following.
Heavily influenced by the blues rock artists from England in the ‘60s and ‘70s, his performance had more of an arena rock vibe while the core of his songs and solos can be traced to legends of American blues history.
An example of this mix came about when he covered “Mainline Florida,” an underrated deep track from Eric Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard. That was followed by another touchstone in his musical development, a cover of Rory Gallagher’s “I Fall Apart.” Bonamassa’s recent release, The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork honors the legendary Irish blues rocker.
Other than the night’s final number, 2002’s “Mountain Time” and 2009’s “Last Kiss,” Bonamassa led his six-piece backing band through material released over the past three years including “Breakthrough,” “Trigger Finger” and “It’s Hard But It’s Fair.”
All told, the evening delivered a satisfying take on the words emblazoned upon one of Bonamassa's T-shirts at the merch booth—Rock ‘N Blues—while also offering quite a bit more.
