Ever since kicking his career off at the age of 12, Joe Bonamassa has not only evolved into a top-notch vocalist/guitarist/songwriter, but has fashioned himself into becoming a respected steward of the blues.
Beyond the fact that he’s released upwards of 40 albums, worked with and produced myriad artists including Eric Gales and Beth Hart and is regularly on the road 200 days of the year, Bonamassa has poured his passion and knowledge into a number of other related endeavors. That fervor will be on full display when he hits the Westbury stage.
The New York State native runs Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation, a non-profit that promotes music education and blues music by funding scholarship and providing music education resources to schools in need. An offshoot of that is the Fueling Musicians Program, which was started as a way to raise money for musicians affected by the pandemic shutdowns and evolved into becoming a permanent entity that helps touring musicians get back on the road. For Bonamassa, all of this is a natural extension from a career that’s found him earning a number of Grammy nods while getting a shot to play alongside heroes like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton.
“You’ve just got to find a way to give back,” he explained. “I’ve been very fortunate in my life and career, so I try to find a way to give back and do what I can.”
With all this activity going on, Bonamassa still managed to release 2025’s Breakthrough, his seventeenth solo album. Produced by longtime collaborator Kevin
Shirley (Iron Maiden/The Black Crowes), this 10-song outing was a two-year process squeezed in amid various commitments.
The end result is a rich mix of blues-rock bangers and ballads highlighted by Bonamassa’s soulful singing and rich guitar playing. Highlights range from the soaring
emotiveness of “Broken Record” to the chugging New Orleans-flavored funk of “Drive by the Exit Sign” that falls somewhere between Little Feat and Dr. John. The experience of getting this album out proved to be a challenging, yet rewarding experience for Bonamassa.
“This record took about two years to make,” Bonamassa said. “We started in 2023 by recording in Santorini [Greece], went to Nashville and then L.A. It kind of got pieced
together as they do sometimes. With Breakthrough, as soon as we had enough material, we would go for it. The challenge was trying to make something that was done in-between touring and everything sound cohesive. It doesn’t sound like it was recorded in three different locations, but it was.”
With new material raring to go, Bonamassa is pumped to be hitting the road.
“We’re finally going to start paying stuff off the new record,” he said. “These upcoming dates will be cool and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a completely new show from what we’ve been doing recently. Every year, you’ve got to put something new together.”
Amid all that’s going on in own world, Bonamassa couldn’t help but notice that with the centennial of B.B. King’s birthday having been marked on September 16 2025, nothing was apparently going to be done to commemorate this milestone. Bonamassa took it upon himself to curate a recorded project dubbed B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100.
Since King’s recent birthday, batches of songs from the late blues icon’s catalog covered by a wide array of artists have been released digitally on a monthly basis. The final full physical and digital release came out on Jan. 9. Having opened for King when he was 12, Bonamassa had a personal connection to the Mississippi native and felt it
would have been remiss if the latter’s centennial had come and gone.
“I met B.B. King on May 24, 1990 in Rochester, N.Y.,” he recalled. “When I realized that nobody was doing anything to recognize B.B.’s 100 th birthday on September 16, it was shocking. So, we did something. We have 33 songs and 33 different guests. It’s everyone from Paul Rodgers, Slash and Eric Clapton to Chaka Khan and George Benson—you name it. That was like making five records at the same time.”
Despite the enormity of this project, it was something Bonamassa felt needed to be done for someone who provided him with a major opportunity to play before a large
audience.
“Very few people literally define the genre of music in which they live in and he was one of them,” Bonamassa said. “There have been a lot of people who have played the
blues, but nobody like B.B.”
Joe Bonamassa will be appearing on March 6 at Flagstar at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Road in Westbury. For more information, visit www.livenation.com or call 877- 598-8497.
