Joe Bonamassa has a special gift for his fans this holiday season. On Friday (December 8), he released Merry Christmas, Baby, a 14-track album that blends holiday classics with original tunes. The revered guitarist, who opened for B.B. King when he was 12, reimagines such classics as “O Holy Night,” “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” and “Santa Claus is Back in Town” into blues numbers that sit alongside lesser-known gems like “Christmas Boogie” and “Christmas Comes But Once a Year.”
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Bonamassa also honors his longtime mentor King with “Lonesome Christmas,” which King released a cover of in 2001. The album boasts two versions of both “O Holy Night” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” with Bonamassa offering an orchestral version of the former and an Irish rendition of the latter. He includes the two Dion songs he played guitar on: “You Know It’s Christmas” and “Hello Christmas,” featuring Amy Grant. The album is available for a limited time as a free download.
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Since the release of his debut album in 2000, Bonamassa has had several of his 16 studio albums hit No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart, including his 2023 album Blues Deluxe Vol. 2, which found him covering songs by some of his favorite rock and blues artists, including Fleetwood Mac, Albert King, and Bobby Bland. Vol. 2 serves as the continuation of his 2003 album, Blues Deluxe, wherein he covered songs by King, Buddy Guy, and more.
Bonamassa spent 2023 on the road supporting the album. He’ll hit the road again in 2024, beginning on February 19 in Louisville, Kentucky, and wrapping up on March 16 in Clearwater, Florida. He’ll take to the high seas on the five-day cruise, Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea IX. Billed as the “biggest blues-rock party at sea,” Bonamassa joins a lineup of John Oates, The Marshall Tucker Band, Grace Potter and more on the cruise that travels from Miami to Cozumel, Mexico, on March 18-22.
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