Label: Mascot Records
Review by Davide Torresan
Do you know the saying “Never change a winning team”? Well, the American singer-songwriter Beth Hart and the famous blues/rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa thought the same thing. The collaboration between these two atists started in 2011 when their “Don’t Explain” came out. During the tour for the promotion of Beth‘s last album “Bang Bang Boom Boom”, she took the time to shut herself into the studio with Joe to record a new album.
This “Seesaw” is a nice work in which soul, blues and rock merge together giving birth to a cover album that pays tributes to some great artists like Etta James, Billie Holiday, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. The black voice of Beth and Joe‘s virtuosity on guitar are present along the whole record.
“Nutbush City Limits” works pretty damn good thanks to the grit that Beth gives to this song and the rock ‘n’ roll mark of Joe with his guitar. “A Sunday Kind of Love” with its strings in the background is a romantic ballad, and I didn’t remember that Beth could be so expressive in this type of songs. “Strange Fruit” affected me enough. It’s not easy to match the wonderful voice of Nina Simone and for me it’s an impossible task. Beth tried to do her best as usual, but I didn’t like very much the choice of this song. It matters very little: “Seesaw” is still a really good album!
Rating – 75/100
Tracklist
- Them There Eyes
- Close to My Fire
- Nutbush City Limits
- I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
- Can’t Let Go
- Miss Lady
- If I Tell You I Love You
- Rhymes
- A Sunday Kind of Love
- Seesaw
- Strange Fruit
Line Up
- Beth Hart – Vocals
- Joe Bonamassa – Guitars
- Blondie Chaplin – Rhythm guitar, backing vocals, percussion
- Arlan Schierbaum – Organ & piano
- Lee Thornburg – Trumpet & trombone
- Ron Dziubla – Sax
- Carmine Rojas – Bass
- Anton Fig – Drums & percussions
Links
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa : Site