Rock Candy Funk Party – We Want Groove
J&R Adventures
www.rockcandyfunkparty.com
Rating: B
Guitarist Joe Bonamassa has added yet another side project to his already busy life.
In addition to his amazingly successful solo career, Joe is the lead guitarist and part time vocalist for Black Country Communion, has done an album with vocalist Beth Hart and now, he has a funk band titled Rock Candy Funk Party.
Yes, Joe is busy man. Perhaps that is why when he joined up with guitarist Ron DeJesus, bass player Mike Merrit, keyboardist Renato Neto and drummer, and the albums producer, Tal Bergman he had only ten days to create the music found on We Want Groove.
The album, a slight nod to the Miles Davis album, We Want Miles, is a lesson in purity. These guys are not reinventing the funk wagon at all, quite the opposite. They are paying homage to a genre that has been all but forgotten in the American musical consciousness. They do it with mostly original music, one track, “Root Down (and Get It)” is a remake, the rest are original.
“Octopus-e” is the first single from the album and can be downloaded for free from the band’s website. This song will show you what you’re getting. This is a true blue funky slab of slapping bass and grooving guitars with some keyboard flourishes and solid drumming thrown in for good measure. There is even a hidden track that appears way after the last song on the CD, “New York Song” has finished.
The best moments on the album are the ten minute epic funk-fest “The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life” and “We Want to Groove.” These tunes will take your breath away when you realize that this stuff was made up on the fly; these guys are good.
Granted, funky rock candy party music is not for everyone. Still, this is good stuff for when you’re in that certain mood…you know when you need to get your groove on and you want to get funky. When that mood hits then this one will do the trick time and time again.
Look for Rock Candy Funk Party to his the shelves January 29, 2013.
By Jeb Wright
