I met Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa via a shared on Facebook that one of my cousins hung. It was a session where Joe commented on the excellent chemistry that Beth had done with him and presented her with his band to the great satisfaction of the public. Beth is fantastic. Her voice is amazing and playing together with a band like Joe made this pair an unbeatable team in the interpretation of soul and blues. This is the video I'm talking about. The song: I'll take care of you. This song was written by Brook Benton and originally recorded by Bobby Bland in 1959. It reached #89 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1960. I was really impressed.
Joe Bonamassa began playing guitar at the age of four and at seven he played the blues as an expert. His father Len Bonamassa has a music store in Utica, New York. Talking about his father Bonamassa said: "My father was a guitarist and dealer of guitars, so the guitars were always around the house as part of my life. They were around like chairs or tables, so that I felt them each day like an everyday thing in my lifetime".
This video is from a presentation of them at The Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam NL, 2014. The song: Your Heart Is As Black As Night. This song was written by Melody Gardot. Performance of Beth & Joe is really great.
Continuing with Joe, at ten years after a short learning period with musician Danny Gatton, he had learned much about country music, blues and jazz, and at twelve, became the opening act for BB King. Blues legend said after listening to Joe: "The potential of this guy is amazing". After that Joe Bonamassa began to be known in the world of blues, getting to play with people like Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Gary Moore, Stephen Stills, Robert Cray, George Thorogood, Joe Cocker and Gregg Allman.
Next video is a recording of the song Strange Fruit. This song performed most famously by Billie Holiday was sang and recorded by her in 1939. Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem published in 1937, is a protest against American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans.
Beth Hart began to dabble in musical aspects by playing the piano. Her fascination with the instrument began one day when she heard on television Moonlight. That night she sat at the piano and started playing a fragment of the work of Beethoven. She was only 4 years. Her parents pleasantly surprised soon enroll her in piano lessons with Miss Davis, a piano teacher who also painted.
I'd Rather Go Blind is a blues song written by Ellington Jordan that was first recorded by Etta James in 1967 and has subsequently become regarded as a blues and soul classic. Here the great performance by Beth & Joe.
When Beth Hart took about eight years, Miss Davis realized that the little Beth had never learned to read music, because she played the track and then gave her the partiture to be taken her home to practice. Taking advantage of this, Beth never used the partiture and just played pretending she was reading. When Miss Davis realized this, she was very angry and told Beth's mother not to teach her more piano. This did not stop Beth playing the piano. It was something she could not avoid. In fact, during his childhood she had virtually no friends because every time she invited one to her home, sat at the piano and played all afternoon for him.
Finally Close to my Fire is a song written by Peter Hoppe with lyrics written by Stephanie Popp. Here performed by Beth & Joe.