MOVING THE NEEDLE
Joe Bonamassa is in high spirits and, frankly, who can blame him? We sit down with the guitarist in the slightly spooky surroundings of a Nashville paint factory that’s been repurposed as a film and photography studio and provides the suitably vibey location for today’s shoot. The July air is as thick as tar and, though the industrial-sized fan we’ve cranked up to jet-engine levels provides precious little respite from the heat, Joe’s taking it in his stride. After all, he bought an apartment downtown back in 2018 and these days he’s practically a Music City native. Yet, with summer and fall US tour dates in the calendar and a new album to promote, staying at home is the last thing on Bonamassa’s mind.
Entitled Time Clocks, the album in question is his 15th solo studio long-player and one of his most ambitious to date. If the six and seven-minute durations of many of the songs don’t provide enough of a signpost that this might be a more progessive-sounding take on blues-rock than Bonamassa’s previous work, then how about the sleeve art? Designed by none other than Hugh Syme, the Canadian graphic artist responsible for creating album cover artwork for the likes of Rush, Dream Theater, Megadeth and Queensrÿche, Time Clocks features a giant hourglass shattering in a desolate landscape as several tiny figures look on. That’s the awkward thing about time: it’s bigger than all of us, and there’s very little we can do about it.
