Fire alert! Gathering in the same room Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa is the nightmare of every fireman in the world. True pyromaniacs of the blue note, those two have had their field day since their meeting in 2010. The Californian with her soul panther voice and the New Yorker, an epileptic of the electric guitar, join forces that are a perfect match. And their tandem is probably the most inspired thing to happen to blues rock in ages, as is confirmed by this third studio album, after Don’t Explain (2011) and Seesaw (2013). As usual, Beth Hart’s voice is some kind of irresistible magnet that tows every word, every sentence, each chorus… An intense singing which finds in Joe Bonamassa’s playing THE dream partner. As for the repertoire revisited for this Black Coffee, recorded in five days at the Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas in August 2016 (with drummer Anton Fig, saxophonists Ron Dziubla and Paulie Cerra, trumpet player Lee Thornburg, keyboardist Reese Wynans, bass player Michael Rhodes, guitarist Rob McNelley and backing vocalists Mahalia Barnes, Jade Macrae and Juanita Tippins), simply reading those names is enough to gauge the good tastes of the duo: Edgar Winter, Etta James, Ike Turner, Ella Fitzgerald, Lil’ Green, LaVern Baker, Howlin’ Wolf and Lucinda Williams. © CM/Qobuz