Seesaw
Artists: Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa
Label: J&R Adventures
Released: May 21, 2013
Reviewed: May 19, 2013
Love it/buy it.
That should be enough of a review – especially for you regular Boomerocity readers. However, I know there’s a bunch of you who are new to Boomerocity so I’ll give you more meat to chew on regarding the latest duet project by the perennially beautiful and talented Beth Hart and THE blues man of the new millennium, Joe Bonamassa.
First of all, it goes without saying that Boomerocity is a huge fan of both Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa. Neither can do no wrong in its humble opinion. That said, Seesaw is over-the-top excellent. Beth’s vocals throughout the entire album solidifies her place in music history as a voice and performer right up there in the ranks of Billie Holiday, Etta James, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin. Yes, seriously.
As was the case with their debut duet album, Don’t Explain, this project is full of delicious covers of some great music by some of music’s greatest voices. Produced by the brilliant Kevin Shirley (who has also produced projects by Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes as well as Bonamassa’s solo work), Seesaw is an audio treasure chest that pays due respect to these great tunes.
The whole album is great. However, Boomerocity will highlight three randomly chosen jewels.
Natbush City Limits If anyone can deliver the tune to anywhere near the level of the divine Ms. Turner, it’s the equally divine Ms. Hart. Bonamassa’s guitar work is off-the-charts excellent and will go down as being equally iconic and memorable as Ike’s.
By far THE Boomerocity favorite on this album is the great Donnie Hathaway tune, I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know. Beth’s performance will send chills up and down the listener’s spine and Joe’s guitar work takes them straight to the crossroads. This tune earns infinite slaps of the repeat button until it’s plumb wore out. Yeah, it’s that great!
The eerily ethereal Strange Fruit demonstrates Hart’s ability to project passion into songs about subjects that haven’t directly impacted but that she can readily empathize with. This song originally recorded by Nina Simone about racism. I believe that Ms. Simone is smiling on Beth from above for how she covered this great tune.
Buy Seesaw immediately. In fact, buy an extra copy or two for your friends who love this kind of music but who aren’t aware of Beth Hart or Joe Bonamassa. They’ll love you forever for turning them on to these two great artists.