Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa: Seesaw

Joe rides shotgun again on a soul-blues covers sequel.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Bonamassa’s extra-curricular activities have slimmed with Black Country Communion’s termination, but he’s still pals with Beth Hart, the LA singer-songwriter he partnered on 2011’s hit Don’t Explain.

Once again here, he’s the supportive side-man to Hart’s blue-eyed belter. He takes an unexceptional, long solo during Donny Hathaway’s I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know, but that’s about it. Material ranging from Billie Holiday’s Them There Eyes to Lucinda Williams’ Can’t Let Go is a busman’s holiday from his Brit blues heartland, but nothing’s a stretch.

The brassy, uptown production is from the Michael Parkinson end of Lonely Street, where Hart too has the chops for the job, taking Nutbush City Limits and blowing a free-spirited gale through its mean, tight-arsed town. Swampy ambience opens Strange Fruit, the Holiday-immortalised lynching lament. It’s a nervy choice, respectfully done. Like most of the record, it’s also pretty redundant.

Nick Hasted

Nick Hasted writes about film, music, books and comics for Classic Rock, The Independent, Uncut, Jazzwise and The Arts Desk. He has published three books: The Dark Story of Eminem (2002), You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks (2011), and Jack White: How He Built An Empire From The Blues (2016).