LONDON TEA PARTY

HOW JOE BONAMASSA DECAMPED TO ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS WITH BERNIE MARSDEN AND FORMER CREAM LYRICIST PETE BROWN TO WRITE AND RECORD ROYAL TEA, AN ALBUM THAT’S BURSTING WITH THAT BRITISH BLUES BOOM

- JOSHUA M. MILLER

JOE BONAMASSA HAS WORSHIPPED BRITISH blues and rock ‘n’ roll for as long as he can remember. When he was around 12, he raided his father’s vinyl collection, which introduced him to — among other things — different aspects of the U.K.’s musical output. He began listening to some of England’s finest six-string exports — namely Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page — as he started pursuing his own career in music. “The British were my gateway into the blues,” says Bonamassa, who even dedicated an entire 2016 U.K. tour to his British guitar heroes. Some of that tour’s highlights — including Bonamassa’s scorching takes on the Jeff Beck Group’s “Let Me Love You,” Cream’s “SWLABR” and Led Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times” — can be heard on 2018’s British Blues Explosion Live.

That same year, right around the time we called Bonamassa to discuss