On the Road With Joe Bonamassa Ep.6- Meet & Greet

Bonamassa’s solo début, in 2000, was his Top 10 Blues disc A New Day Yesterday, named after the 1969 Jethro Tull classic that Joe makes his own with what allmusic.com called “a jaw-dropping performance”. Produced by the late, legendary Tom Dowd, the album featured guest shots by Gregg Allman, Rick Derringer and Leslie West, among other greats. The powerhouse original song “Miss You, Hate You” remains a cornerstone of Joe’s repertoire, as does the slide guitar showcase “Cradle Rock”. Bonamassa followed it up in 2002 with "So, It's Like That", a brew of dead-on blues and classic pop-rock production featuring all originals, including the tour de force “Pain And Sorrow”. The album was his first to hit #1 on Billboard’s Blues chart.

In 2003 – designated “Year Of The Blues” by Congress – Bonamassa returned with his heartfelt tribute to the genre, "Blues Deluxe", packed with nine classics and three originals. In the liner notes, Harris Cohen observed that Joe, “never loses touch with the raw emotion that makes the blues what it is.” Reviewing "Blues Deluxe", former Creem editor Jaan Uhelszki’ added, “New York guitar phenom walks tall in the blues tradition…jettisoning fiery riffs inspired by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elmore James, and Albert Collins into the future with furious playing, a hard-rock sensibility, and a grizzled voice that owes a debt to Gregg Allman. Equally inspired by the Delta blues and the mid-'60s British blues boom, the young firebrand … is able to fuse those two schools together, creating edgy blues rock.” Bonamassa further honed that fusion on ’04’s "Had To Cry Today", another sweat-soaked mix of sound made electrifying through his gale force playing.

In 2006, Bonamassa released his fifth full-length studio album, You & Me. This album also appeared at #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. For the recording of this album, he enlisted the talents of multiple studio musicians such as Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham. "Your Funeral And My Trial", a track on the album, featured harmonica prodigy L.D. Miller,and bassist Carmine Rojas (Rod Stewart, David Bowie). You & Me is Bonamassa's heaviest blues album, breaking away from the heavier rock styles featured in So, It's Like That, and Had to Cry Today. The title of the album was taken from the Django Reinhardt song "Vous et Moi" (You and Me - 1942). The violin intro of that song was actually played by Reinhardt and inspired Bonamassa to write "Django", the 7th track on the album. Longer live versions would later appear on Live From Nowhere in Particular in 2009, and at the May 4th Royal Albert Hall Concert (Live DVD).

Sloe Gin was released in August 2007, and, as of March 2008, had spent more than 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Blues Chart. This album features much more acoustic guitar work than any of Bonamassa's previous albums. Bonamassa's touring band underwent another change for this album's tour; bassist Carmine Rojas replaced Mark Epstein and keyboardist Rick Melick was added. Both of the new band members took part in the recordings of You & Me and Sloe Gin, and toured on select dates during promotion of "You & Me".

Bonamassa presented his first live show as DJ on UK radio station Planet Rock on Sunday November 9, 2008, playing tracks from the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher and Eric Clapton.

In November 2008 Bonamassa announced he would be playing at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 4, 2009. Tickets for the concert sold out in less than a week, despite going on sale four months ahead of the performance. Bonamassa described the event to the Express & Star as "the complete culmination of 20 years of work for me."

At the Royal Albert Hall gig 4 May 2009, Bonamassa stated that the first song that he learned to play was "Further on Up the Road" and he then introduced Eric Clapton and together they performed the song, which Joe had been featuring on his current tour. Later in the gig, Joe paid tribute to the 'Paul Jones Radio Hour' on BBC Radio for playing his material on the air, then introduced Paul Jones (ex Manfred Mann & Blues Band) who played blues harp/harmonica on a Sonny Boy Williamson song called "Your Funeral, My Trial." Joe thanked the audience for "being a part of the best day of his life."

It was announced by UK radio station, Planet Rock on 14 January 2010 that Bonamassa was forming a new band with Jason Bonham and Glenn Hughes, to be known as Black Country. An album is planned for release later in the year.

In March 2010, Bonamassa released his tenth full-length solo album Black Rock[2] which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts and #38 on the Billboard Top 200.

In May 2010 he asked Ian Anderson to guest at his concert at London's Hammersmith Apollo on May 28in London, and they played "A New Day Yesterday" along with "Locomotive Breath". Joe stated that the concert was the largest audience he had played for, to date. The audience number was 5,200.

The Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian supergroup is now called Black Country Communion. The band were forced to add 'Communion' to their original name Black Country after another band with the same name raised an objection.

In March 2011, Bonamassa released his eleventh full-length solo album, entitled Dust Bowl.