"Sloe Gin" is primarily a plum spirit. In the blues world, it's also the title of a Tim Curry song released in 1978. For Joe Bonamassa, it is the title of his most schizophrenic album. Indeed, never stingy in experiment and always ready to take the listener to another way than the one proposed on the previous album, the guy takes up the challenge to mix acoustic and electric in the same album.
On the time of a first session, he records in acoustic tracks like 'Ball Peen Hammer' enriched with a string section, the nostalgic 'Around The Band' with an incredible feeling (and which proves what a great composer he is), the groovy 'Jelly Road', the aptly named 'India', an instrumental rich in zither, or the folk 'Richmond'. And when he doesn't play alone, his band follows him to maintain intact the very roots atmosphere. If we had been able to appreciate on his previous albums Bonamassa's playing on an acoustic guitar, such a concentration of gems makes this album immediately indispensable.
The most surprising thing is that these tracks are mixed with those recorded on an electric session. Ten Years After's 'One Of These Days' with its airy finale or Charles Brown's 'Black Night' with its heavy riff (which sounds like Led Zep here) are so well covered that the original version sounds very dull. John Mayall's 'Another Kind Of Love' brings the necessary touch of Happy Blues while 'Sloe Gin' reveals on 8 minutes all the genius of Joe Bonamassa who, once again, transcends the original (intimate start, return of the orchestra, samples of police cars and majestic final, we are here in a real movie). In order to perfect the bridge between the two sessions, the 'Seagul' of Bad Company or the heavy 'Dirt In My Pocket' mix skillfully the genres by making cohabit the electric and the acoustic for an ultimate result, between the grace of the fragile touch and the force of the Blues-Rock.
If the bet was daring, once again Joe Bonamassa, like King Midas, transforms everything he touches into gold and the pleasure of tasting the two facets of the artist with such an osmosis makes it perhaps one of the best opus of the artist.