Joe Bonamassa and Gov’t Mule are touring together. I sure wish I could make a show, and think you should if you can. The double bill got me thinking about the time I helped make a Joe sit-in with Mule happen. Let me tell you the tale and share the videos I shot that night.
In 2009 I was pretty fresh back from China and just easing back into writing for Guitar World, which had been my primary work home since 1991. I thought I was maybe done with that before Brad Tolinski asked me if I wanted to interview Derek Trucks about his upcoming album. Well, why would I say no to that? Then, I was writing a cover story about the Allman Brothers Band’s 40th anniversary run at the Beacon, a story that was the launching pad for One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band.
And just like that, I was bak in. In October, 2009, I flew to Peoria, Illinois to join up with Joe Bonamassa for a couple of days on the road and what I think was his first big feature in the magazine. We had been writing about “Smoking Joe” since he was a 14-year-old prodigy from upstate New York and he even showed up and jammed at one of our mid-90s Christmas parties. Bu the had stepped up his career and we were stepping up the coverage.
I quickly realized that on day two of my journey with Joe we would be in Chicago and Gov’t Mule were playing at the Riviera Theatre while Joe was headlining the Vic Theatre, just a few miles away. I let Warren know that I was going to be in town and I would make it up for however much of the Mule show I could make, and I explained the situation. I suggested bringing Joe by and Warren told me to ask him if he wanted to sit in. He did, and the wheels were in motion. (At least that’s how I remember the order of things.)
Joe and Warren were old friends, with JB having recorded WH’s “If Heartaches Were Nickels” in 2000, but they had not spoken in several years, and both were delighted to reconnect. After Joe’s soundcheck at the Vic, he and I jumped in a runner’s van and headed up to the Riv, where Mule was soundchecking, and they worked out two songs to play together - “Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” and “Sco-Mule,” which I think Joe was learning on the spot.
The rehearsal was great, and I filmed it from the photo pit, where I was determined to return a few hours later to capture the real thing. After Joe’s excellent show, we ran out the back door while the crowd was still stomping their feet and into a waiting van, now joined by my attorney Big Art, who immediately began redirecting the young driver on better routes to avoid traffic.
We arrived at the Riviera’s stage door, Brian Farmer grabbed Joe’s guitar to get it ready, and we all waited for him to come out. Before he did, I decamped for the photo pit, where I was waiting with my Canon for the two songs that followed.
Here is Joe on “Feel Like Breaking Somebody’s Home”
And then on “Sco Mule”
And here’s Joe doing “If Heartaches Were Nickels” with an orchestra.
Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.
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