Joe Bonamassa - Live From The Royal Albert Hall

180-gram, double LP set

Featuring guest spots by Eric Clapton and Paul Jones

When Joe Bonamassa took the stage at Royal Albert Hall in May 2009, he fulfilled a dream he'd held since first picking up a guitar as a kid in upstate New York. The sold-out concert — fresh off the release of his No. 1 album The Ballad Of John Henry — marked Bonamassa's headlining debut at arguably the most prestigious concert venue in the world. "May 4, 2009 was a day 20 years in the making," says Bonamassa. "I have never been so honored in my life. It was truly larger than the sum of its parts."

Bonamassa has soul, plenty of it, and he plays guitar with a reverent grace, and sometimes lost in all this is that he's a pretty good singer, too, sounding more than a little bit like a reconstituted Paul Rodgers. His stunning headline show from the Royal Albert Hall, which featured guest spots by Eric Clapton and Paul Jones, was released in 2009 on DVD and download versions of the songs have been available on iTunes for a while, but this two-LP set marks the release of the concert as an album in and of itself, and it's simply wonderful, full of great guitar playing, solid singing, and with a horn section and double drummers on board, the sound is full and even majestic. Bonamassa is the real deal, and tracks here like the elegant opener "Django," "The Ballad of John Henry," the marvelous cover of Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere," and a shifting, sprawling workout on Rod Stewart's "Blues Deluxe" show a musician at the top of his game, one who has learned that a guitar lead should serve the song and not the other way around. Bonamassa isn't some kid prodigy anymore — he's grown up into one of the most soulful blues-rock performers on the planet. There's plenty of proof of that here.

Side 1
Django
The Ballad of John Henry
So It's Like That
Last Kiss
So Many Roads
Stop!

Side 2
Further On Up the Road
Woke Up Dreaming
High Water Everywhere
Sloe Gin
Lonesome Road Blues

Side 3
Happier Times
Your Funeral My Trial
Blues Deluxe
Story of a Quarryman
The Great Flood

Side 4
Just Got Paid
Mountain Time
Asking Around for You